Tristan Jarry is Edmonton's clear number one goaltender by default, and it took somebody else getting hurt to put him there.
Mark Spector laid the situation out from camp on Thursday, and it is not a flattering read for anyone involved.
Go back to last season. He arrived in Edmonton, got injured a couple of weeks later, and his game went sideways from there.
He lost the starter's net to Connor Ingram and got into exactly one playoff game. That is a full season summed up in a sentence.
The numbers are what they are. Sixteen wins across 33 appearances with a .882 save percentage.
The front office answered that by going out and acquiring two goaltenders this summer. Nobody adds Frederik Andersen and Devon Levi because they feel great about the room.
The plan was a three goalie system, the first ever in that market. Then Andersen turned up injured and the whole thing collapsed into one name.
Getting injured just a couple of weeks after arriving in Edmonton last season was the wrench in Tristan Jarry's gears that he just didn't need. From there, his game went south, and he eventually lost the starter's net to Connor Ingram.
Jarry got into just one playoff game, and then the team acquired Frederik Andersen and Devon Levi in the off-season, which speaks to the Oilers' trust level in Jarry. - Mark Spector
Edmonton Oilers name Tristan Jarry their new No. 1 after major injury blow
That is the entire safety net. One goaltender coming off a rough year and another with barely half a season of NHL experience behind him.
Andersen is not expected back until at least October 20 and is coming off a .874 save percentage of his own. October is going to be interesting.
The 31 year old has not hidden from any of it. It was not the ending he wanted, and after the injury he did not feel like himself.
He also said the right thing about earning it. You want to start every game, but only one goalie plays, and camp and preseason are where that gets settled.
Stan Bowman used the phrase everybody uses in September. They are looking for a bounce back year.
The stakes are real though. At 31, a season like the last one probably ends any conversation about opening night starts.
He stayed in Edmonton the whole summer to train for it. That is the kind of detail that either becomes a nice story or a sad footnote.
What is in front of him is also being rebuilt. Evan Bouchard opened camp paired with Ryan Shea while Mattias Ekholm skated alongside newcomer Shakir Mukhamadullin.
“You want to start every game. That's the mindset,” said Jarry, who was in Edmonton the entire summer training for a season that will tell us much about where his career goes from here. “You play the game to play, (and) there can only be one (goalie) at a time playing. But you have to earn it. - Jarry
Darnell Nurse is in San Jose now, and his 19:14 of even strength time has to go somewhere. Bouchard led the group at 19:15.
Ekholm is the one who makes that math work. He put up 41 points at plus-32 at 36 years old.
So how does a goaltender rebuild a career behind a blue line that is rebuilding itself?
Getting the net because the other guy got hurt is like getting the corner office because somebody called in sick. You are in the chair. Nobody promoted you.
Winnipeg comes to town Saturday for the preseason opener. First real look at whether the Oilers actually solved anything in goal or just rearranged the problem.
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Can Tristan Jarry hold the Edmonton starting job for the whole season?
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