Is Jack Campbell The Answer For The Edmonton Oilers?

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Joshua Deeds
September 4, 2022 (6:55 PM)

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Ken Holland acquired Jack Campbell during free agency, as a means to fill the hole in the goalie spot, as a result of Mike Smith going on LTIR and Mikko Koskinen opting to play in Switzerland.

Campbell had proven himself as a starter in Toronto, after moving Freddie Anderson to Carolina in exchange for Petr Mrazek.

Edmonton has had lackluster performances from Mike Smith, who has has problems staying healthy, even into last season's Western Conference Finals, against the Colorado Avalanche.

Mikko Koskinen, as a result of inconsistent play, ended up suffering being the other part of the tandem. He'd get few reps until Smith would wind up on the shelf.

The Oilers' 3rd option, Stuart Skinner had a good run in 2021-2022, but his sample size is too small to be considered proven.

Stats guru Rob Vollman published his «quality starts» definition in his Hockey Abstract years ago and it gives us a measurable way to identify consistency. Vollman defined a quality start as «stopping at least a league average number of shots (typically 91.3% prior to 2009-10, and 91.7% since), or play at least as well as a replacement-level goalie (88.5%) while allowing two goals or fewer.

Campbell measured over Smith, Koskinen, and Freddie the last 3 seasons in Toronto as far as quality starts go and that is not including the rest of the Maple Leafs goalie core.