This Elliotte Friedman update reveals Oilers’ top goalie target
Jordan Binnington is the name around Kris Knoblauch again, and Edmonton’s search for a real fix in net just got more serious.
That is the strongest read from Elliotte Friedman’s latest Oilers chatter. If Edmonton goes back into the goalie market, Binnington is being viewed as the obvious option.
It makes sense from Edmonton’s side. The Oilers are coming off a season where the crease stayed unsettled, and that problem kept hanging over everything else on the roster.
Edmonton finished 41-30-11 with 93 points, which is not enough for a team built around Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. That record always was going to drag the goalie question back into the middle of the summer.
Binnington is not coming off a clean year himself. He went 13-20-7 with a 3.33 goals-against average and a .873 save percentage in 41 games for St. Louis.
So this is not about chasing the hottest goalie on the market. It is about Edmonton looking for a different kind of answer, one with pedigree, edge, and enough history to believe a bounce-back is still there.
That part matters because Binnington still carries weight in big moments. Sportsnet noted earlier this season that Canada kept leaning on him in pressure games because of that exact reputation.
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Oilers’ top goalie target emerges in Elliotte Friedman update
This is where the fit gets interesting. Binnington would not arrive as a development play. He would arrive as a veteran the Oilers would be trusting to stabilize the room right away.
Knoblauch already admitted Edmonton did not defend well enough, and goaltending rarely gets judged in isolation when a team says that out loud after an exit.
That is why this rumor has teeth. It is not only about swapping one goalie for another. It is about whether Edmonton believes a harder, more experienced presence in the crease could help settle the whole team.
There is risk all over it. Binnington is 32, his numbers dipped hard this season, and Edmonton cannot afford another miss in goal if it wants to calm the noise around the organization.
But the logic is still easy to see. McDavid and Draisaitl are in win-now years, the Oilers need sharper answers, and Jordan Binnington is the kind of gamble teams make when they are done pretending the crease can wait.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 4, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Nikolaj Ehlers | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mitch Marner | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sean Couturier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jamie Drysdale | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikael Granlund | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| John Carlson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Carl Grundstrom | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jackson Lacombe | - | 1 | 1 | |
| K'Andre Miller | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jordan Staal | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Sean Walker | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | - | - | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||