EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers made an anticipated move in net Friday, sending longtime starter Stuart Skinner to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Tristan Jarry.
The Oilers included defenceman Brett Kulak and a second-round draft pick in 2029 in the package to Pittsburgh and also got forward Samuel Poulin from the Penguins.
In a separate move, the Oilers picked up defenceman Spencer Stastney from the Nashville Predators for a third-round pick in 2027.
But the departure of Skinner, whose hometown is Edmonton, was a seismic element in the deal.
The 27-year-old started the majority of games in two straight playoff runs to the Stanley Cup final. Edmonton lost to Florida in seven games in 2024 and six to the Panthers in 2025.
Skinner started this season 11-8-4 with a 2.83 goals against average and .891 save percentage. He’s in the final season of a three-year contract worth US$2.6 million annually.
“It’s not so much a comment on Stuart Skinner. It’s just really maybe time for something different here,” Oilers general manager Stan Bowman said Friday morning on a media video call.
There had been no contract extension talks with Skinner, Bowman said.
Jarry, who has a 9-3-1 record with a 2.66 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage this season, will join the Oilers on Saturday in Toronto, where they face the Maple Leafs.
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The 30-year-old from Surrey, B.C., is a two-time all-star (2020, 2022). Jarry is in the third year of a five-year contract worth $5.375 million annually.
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Jarry holds a career 2.74 goals-against average and .909 save percentage over 307 NHL games.
“His performance over a number of years has been very good,” Bowman said.
The six-foot-four, 201-pound netminder, who played his four-year Western Hockey League career with the Edmonton Oil Kings, has fewer playoff games under his belt than Skinner, with a 2-6 record in eight starts.
“We wanted to make sure that the person we were bringing in, we felt confident,” Bowman said. “The fact that he’s got two more years on his contract, we have our goalie for the next three playoff runs, which I think is important knowing that he is signed and it’s a number that we’re going to be able to manage well in our salary cap over the coming couple seasons.”
Bowman says goalie Calvin Pickard will remain with the Oilers. The 33-year-old from Moncton went 22-10-1 last season and 7-1 in the post-season.
Oilers star Connor McDavid signed a two-year contract extension in October, effectively starting the clock running on the NHL club to make the moves necessary to win a Stanley Cup before the captain becomes a free agent in 2028.
“It always comes down to in the end, one or two moments for every goalie, not just for the Oilers’ goalies, but everyone’s measured sort of by what they remember in a playoff series,” Bowman said. “There’s a lot of things that have to get your team to that point, and we think that Tristan has a very solid track record for being a good goaltender.”
The 31-year-old Kulak, also from Edmonton, was a mainstay on the team’s back end during their playoff runs. Kulak was also in the final year of his contract which counts $2.75 million against the salary cap.
“We certainly weren’t trying to trade Brett Kulak,” Bowman said. “But in order to make the transaction work and the money going back and forth, that had to be part of it.”
Stastney, 25, had a goal and eight assists and was minus-1 in 30 games this season. He’s in the second and last year of a contract worth $825,000.
“Stastney, who’s six years younger, very similar style player,” Bowman said.
‘”The thing we’ve liked about Stastney is his excellent mobility. He’s a great skater, a lot of quickness, and he’s been very effective in a penalty kill, and he’s got some offence to his game. He really hasn’t reached his true potential yet.
“We’ve been able to reshape our defence a bit here in the last year to we’ve now got three guys that are 25 and (Evan Bouchard) is 26.”
The 24-year-old Poulin has played two games for Pittsburgh this season. The right-winger from Blainville, Que., has nine goals and 11 assists in 22 games in the American Hockey League.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2025.
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