If not John Gibson, maybe Jack Campbell could resurrect his career
Yeah, Jack Campbell probably isn’t going back to Edmonton, and if there is any player on this list whose impending buyout is all but a done deal, it’s Campbell’s. We’re looking at a goaltender who spent just five contests with the Oilers before going on waivers, and he finished with an 0.873 save percentage, a 4.50 GAA, and a pair of ‘really bad starts.’
The plan was rather simple in Edmonton - Stuart Skinner and Jack Campbell would make a dynamic duo en route to the Stanley Cup Final. Edmonton may have punched a ticket into the Final, but it came with Skinner and Calvin Pickard playing netminder while Campbell toiled in the AHL.
With an AAV of $5 million, there’s no way the Oilers are paying Campbell to just sit around as a potential fringe NHLer with Skinner and the immense likelihood they hang onto Pickard, who is an unrestricted free agent.
Now, the average fan may look at Campbell’s most recent numbers and cringe, because his time in Edmonton has been anything but smooth. Yeah, the 22-13-4 record looks good, but an 0.886 save percentage, a 3.53 GAA, a 0.333 quality starts percentage, one shutout, and 10 ‘really bad starts’ is enough for fans of any team to lobby for their respective front offices to steer clear of Campbell.
But let’s do ourselves a favor and check out Campbell’s statistics before he went to Edmonton: 71 wins in 135 games played, 0.916 save percentage, 2.53 GAA, nine shutouts, and a 0.560 quality starts percentage. No, he was never a No. 1 goaltender and had just one season as a 1A during the 2021-22 campaign with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but Campbell has shown he can be incredible in a timeshare. Maybe Edmonton was just a bad fit for him?
(Statistics powered by Hockey-Reference)