Edmonton Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner named to projected Team Canada tournament squad but not everyone loving it

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NHL.com writers just named their projected Team Canada squad for the coming Four Nations tournament February 2025.

No surprise to see Edmonton Oilers aces like Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard on the list, and only a small one to see goalie Stuart Skinner named as well, along with Aidan Hill of Las Vegas and Jordan Binnington of St. Louis.

But the lack of star stopper quality in Team Canada nets has at least one goalie analyst, writer Paul Campbell of In Goal Media, questioning the Canada’s goalie pipeline.

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“We need a goaltending summit 🇨🇦,” said Campbell.

For his part, NHL.com Editor-in-Chief Bill Price had this to say about the Team Canada goalie picks: “The good news is that two of these goalies are Stanley Cup champions and the other — Skinner — just took his team to Game 7 of the Cup Final. The not so good news is that there is not a clear No. 1 of this group at this point, and there is not really a dominant goalie in this group either. We had Connor Ingram, who is now with the Utah Hockey Club, in this group in February, but Binnington, a Stanley Cup champion in 2019, made the cut this time.”

Team Canada’s prospective forwards are:
Mathew Barzal, New York Islanders
Connor Bedard, Chicago Blackhawks
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins*
Zach Hyman, Edmonton Oilers
Alexis Lafrenière, New York Rangers
Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche*
Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins*
Mitch Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs
Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers*
Brayden Point, Tampa Bay Lightning*
Sam Reinhart, Florida Panthers
Steven Stamkos, Nashville Predators
Robert Thomas, St. Louis Blues

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And defencemen:
Evan Bouchard, Edmonton Oilers
Noah Dobson, New York Islanders
Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings
Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche*
Josh Morrissey, Winnipeg Jets
Owen Power, Buffalo Sabres
Devon Toews, Colorado Avalanche

My take

1. First off, as the NHL’s Price said, Stuart Skinner helped his Edmonton Oilers to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final this year and Adin Hill won the Cup with Vegas last season. These are major achievements and indicate Canada has solid enough goaltending to win this tournament.

2. Second, Skinner ranks first for wins, second for games played, sixth for goals against average and fifth for save percentage for all Canadian goalies the last two regular seasons. He deserves to be considered for this tournament. If he plays for Canada, it will be a massive achievement but he will have earned it.

3. Campbell is about as sharp an observer of hockey as you’ll find. And he’s not wrong about the overall quality of Canadian goalies. This country does not have those two or three goalies right now who challenge for the title of best goalie in the world. Maybe Skinner will get there, but he’s not there yet.

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4. In total 53 goalies have played in at least 50 games in the NHL the past two seasons. Skinner ranks 16th in save percentage, which is as good a quick-and-dirty metric as you’ll find to measure goalie performance. Hill ranks 14th, Binnington 28th.

5. There’s not one Canadian goalie in the Top 10 for save percentage in this group of elite NHL goalies. Laurent Brossoit is Canadian and he’s had an excellent.927 save percentage the past two seasons, bur he’s only been a back-up. The leader is Linus Ullmark, a Swede, .927 then 90 games, then Connor Hellebuyck, an American, .921 in 124 games.

6. The Americans will be able to use from stand-out goalies like Hellebuyck, Jeremy Swayman, Jake Oettinger, Thatcher Demko, thought I’ll note that Skinner out-played Oettinger in the playoffs.

Sweden has its pick of Linus Ullmark, Filip Gustavsson, Frederik Andersen and Jacob Markstrom, with Ullmark the clear front-runner.

Finland can choose from Juuse Saros, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Ville Husso and Joonas Korpisalo. They don’t have much depth, though Saros is an elite choice.

7. The Russians aren’t in the tournament but if they could they would pick from Ilya Sorokin, Igor Shesterkin, Sergie Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevsky, likely the top pool out there.

8. The silver lining for Canada here. While we don’t have that one or two goalies with top drawer star quality, Canada’s depth in starting NHL goalies remains impressive. On that list of 53 NHL goalies with 50 or more games the past two seasons, 15 of them are Canadian. That is the most of any country, even ahead of the USA which has 11 on the list.

Perhaps one of Canadian goalies will get red hot this coming season and seize the top job.

And maybe that red hot goalie will be Stuart Skinner. He’s got as good a shot as any of becoming the Canada’s obvious choice to start Game 1.

P.S. Solid (and painful) analysis of winning goal by Florida Game 7

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Staples on politics

At the Cult of Hockey

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