PREVIEW: Oilers at Maple Leafs

The Edmonton Oilers begin a five-game road trip on Saturday with the first of a back-to-back at Scotiabank Arena against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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PREVIEW: Oilers at Maple Leafs

TORONTO, ON – A changing of the (crease) guard.

When the Edmonton Oilers kick off a five-game road trip on Saturday night with the first of a back-to-back at Scotiabank Arena against the Toronto Maple Leafs, it'll begin a new era between the pipes for the Blue & Orange following a pair of significant trades with Pittsburgh and Nashville on Friday morning.

As part of the major shakeup, the Oilers acquired goaltender Tristan Jarry and forward Samuel Poulin from the Penguins in exchange for Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak and a 2029 second-round pick, along with adding blueliner Spencer Stastney from the Predators for a 2027 third-round selection.

The biggest move saw the Oilers and Penguins swap starters in Jarry and Skinner, with Oilers GM & Executive VP of Hockey Operations Stan Bowman saying that it was a change in goal they'd been considering for some time before deciding to follow through with the trade on Friday.

“I just felt it was time for something different," the executive said. "It's not so much a comment on Stuart Skinner; it's just maybe time for something different here. We felt confident in the fact that [Jarry's] got two more years on his contract, so we have our goalie for the next three playoff runs, which I think is important."

Jarry is signed until the end of the 2027-28 season at a cap hit of $5.375 million, which beyond the 30-year-old's body of work over nine seasons with the Penguins is a number that Bowman and his management staff were comfortable paying the price of Skinner, Kulak and a future second-round pick.

"Knowing that he's signed, it's a number that we're going to be able to manage well in our salary cap over the coming seasons, so I think those factors did play a role. When you add it all up, it wasn't just about a couple of games here or there. It was about a career sample size and the fact that he's going to be with us for three playoff rounds.”

Jarry, a former WHL champion with the Edmonton Oil Kings back in 2014, is 9-3-1 in 14 games (13 starts) this season, posting a 2.66 goals-against average, a .909 save percentage and one shutout for the Penguins after overcoming some challenges in his game last year – only to return with a bang in 2025-26.

The Surrey, BC product began the year with five wins in his first six starts and seven in his first nine appearances – a strong run of results that reinforced Bowman and his staff's beliefs, along with his successful track record as a starter, that he was their target to take over between the Edmonton pipes.

“We've done a lot of work on this position," Bowman said. "Obviously, it gets a lot of attention. Tristan's had a really consistent performance as a pro, right up until last season, so it was certainly something we looked into, and we wanted to see how he started this year. We've watched him very closely, and we've been impressed with his performance over the course of his career. I think he's shown to be a very solid goaltender.

"A lot of the metrics that we track, he's been very good on those for many years and on a large sample size.”

The 30-year-old will join the Oilers in Toronto for the start of their back-to-back this weekend, taking over as the starter for Stuart Skinner, who spent eight seasons in the organization as a third-round pick by his hometown club in 2017 and led them to two straight appearances in the Stanley Cup Final.

Brett Kulak, another local product from Stony Plain, never missed a single game for the Oilers across parts of five seasons in Oil Country after being picked up by the Oilers from the Canadiens at the 2022 Trade Deadline, playing in every one of the 370 regular-season and playoff games he was available.

Skinner and Kulak are both set to become unrestricted free agents this summer.

Kulak was a reliable contributor for the Oilers – especially during the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs when Mattias Ekholm went down injured – but his inclusion in the trade was the cost of doing business in this League, and acquiring Spencer Stastney from the Predators was made to help fill the void left by him.

"Brett was great and excellent in the playoffs last year. There's no doubt about that," Bowman said. "With where he was in his contract, being in the last year of his deal, we were able to acquire Spencer Stastney, who's six years younger and a very similar style of player. The thing we've liked about Stastney is his excellent mobility. He's a great skater, a lot of quickness, and he's been very effective in the penalty kill. And he's got some offence to his game as well."

The Oilers will get a look at one of their former teammates in Troy Stecher against the Maple Leafs after he was claimed off waivers from Edmonton on Nov. 15, and he's been logging big minutes for the Buds on their injury-riddled blueline by playing north of 22 minutes a night in each of their last six games.

Defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson had to be helped off the ice after hitting the boards hard behind his own team's net in Toronto's 3-2 overtime loss to the Sharks on Tuesday, but the veteran has a chance to suit up against the Oilers on Saturday to give the Leafs some help on their depleted blueline that will be missing Brandon Carlo and Chris Tanev for an extended period.

The Leafs are also without goaltenders Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz, relying heavily on netminder Dennis Hildeby to carry the load in their absences.

The Oilers (14-11-6) and Maple Leafs (14-11-5) have nearly identical records and are each hovering around the Wildcard positions of their respective conferences as they both attempt to move up the standings following up-and-down starts to the season.