Déjà vu, all over again. For a second consecutive season, the Edmonton Oilers lost to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals. This series ended in six games instead of seven, but the final result was the same. Connor McDavid and Co. fell just short.
Where the Oilers go from here is a great question. They don't have much cap space to work with, and Evan Bouchard is going to soak up most of it when the Oilers bring him back as a restricted free agent. There's also Connor McDavid's future to worry about.
What feels abundantly clear, though, is that the Oilers will attempt to finally win the Stanley Cup with arguably the two best players on the planet in McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, without these three players.
3) The Oilers can't afford to pay Trent Frederic what he's going to command
The Oilers traded a second-round pick, a fourth-round pick, and two prospects for an injured Trent Frederic, who, prior to his injury, was in the midst of a down year. He played in one regular season game with the Oilers before getting injured again. He didn't suit up for the Oilers again until the playoffs began.
Frederic was physical, recording 85 hits throughout the playoffs, the sixth-most in the NHL, but he didn't do much beyond that. He scored just one goal and racked up four total points in 22 games and averaged just 11:24 of ice time.
It felt as if Frederic was breaking out last season with the Boston Bruins when he set career highs with 18 goals, 22 assists, and 40 points, but he wasn't playing at that level before the trade and didn't do much offensively with Edmonton in the playoffs. Frederic is likely going to command a raise from the $2.3 million he was making this season, and it's hard to justify a cap-strapped team like the Oilers giving that to him.
2) Jeff Skinner was a poor fit in Edmonton
The Oilers hoped that Jeff Skinner, a veteran who had scored 35 goals with the Buffalo Sabres just two seasons ago, would provide them with high-end depth at just a $3 million cap hit. Instead, he just never got it going in Edmonton and barely played in the playoffs as a result.
In the regular season, Skinner had 16 goals and 29 points in 72 games played. He began the year playing a decent amount, but his ice time fizzled as the year progreessed and reached an all-time low once the playoffs rolled around.
Skinner is still a quality goal scorer, but his fit in Edmonton clearly wasn't what the Oilers hoped it'd be. It wouldn't be surprising to see him thrive elsewhere, but the Oilers have no business keeping him around if they didn't trust him to play in the playoffs.
1) Stuart Skinner has proven he cannot be trusted in the playoffs
This is the big one. To put it as bluntly as possible, the Oilers simply cannot run back this goalie duo of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard. Neither goaltender is good enough to win a Stanley Cup. I'm not going to say the Oilers lost because of their lackluster goaltending, but it's really hard to win with sub-.900 goaltending. Skinner had an .891 save percentage, and Pickard had an .886 save percentage. The reason I have Skinner as the goaltender not returning is that I believe he can bring back more in a potential trade than Pickard.
The Oilers have both Skinner and Pickard under contract for one more year, but running it back should not be an option. We've seen in three straight years now that Skinner is not good enough. I mean, he has a .893 save percentage in his postseason career. The Oilers continued to pull him from games and bench him throughout the playoffs for a reason, and that had little to do with Pickard.
To be fully transparent, I don't know what the backup plan would be. The Oilers don't have much cap space to work with, and I'm not convinced that the best free agent available, Jake Allen, would get this group over the top.
It's on GM Stan Bowman to find a winning formula. I get that the Oilers don't want a repeat of the Jack Campbell blunder, but sticking with Skinner and Pickard is asking for trouble. Hopefully, the Oilers have a move up their sleeve.