San Jose Sharks goalie being held out for trade related purposes, Oilers connected
Photo credit: USA Today Sports
The San Jose Sharks are reportedly holding out goaltender Vitek Vanecek of tonight's game for trade related purposes, which has caused speculation the Oilers are connected.
The Oilers already made a deal for Trent Frederic today, but the team has more time and GM Stan Bowman has not ruled out a goalie trade.
Goalie Vitek Vanecek being held out by San Jose Sharks for trade related purposes
According to reports from San Jose reporter Sheng Peng, the Sharks are keeping Vanecek on the bench in anticipation of an imminent deal.
The 29 year old Czech goaltender has played 181 career NHL games between his time with the Washington Capitals, New Jersey Devils, and San Jose Sharks. Over the course of his career, he has a .903 save percentage.
In the first three years of his NHL career, Vanecek's save percentage was never below an impressive .908. Since the 2023-24 season his play has taken a turn for the worse. This year, Vanecek has a very poor .892 save percentage in 18 games.
The Edmonton Oilers could be an interested team because of their obvious need to acquire a goaltender, but Vanecek looks like far too risky of an addition to be considered an upgrade even on Calvin Pickard.
Outside of his poor play in recent years, Vanecek's contract could take the Oilers out of the fold to acquire the Sharks goalie.
San Jose can't retain any more salary, so the Oilers would have to absorb his full $3.4M unless they paid for third party retention. This should make the trade too costly for Edmonton.
There could be a few other definite options to upgrade the crease for the Oilers, and the best available fit would be Karel Vejmelka.
For now there seem to be no concrete teams attached to Vanecek, but the Oilers could very well be an interested team. Only time will tell if the Oilers or another team will bite in a deal.
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