Today Mactavish made a move to shore up the Oilers goaltending moving forward when he signed Ben Scrivens to a 2 year/$2.3 million per year deal.
The Contract
The contract itself is a bridge contract for both sides. For Scrivens it gives him the confidence and motivation moving forward to prove that he is ready to be a starter in this league. At this point in his career he has always been a number 2/3 guy and with Edmonton he is finally going to get the chance to be the number 1 guy.
For the Oilers this is a deal that halfway solves their goalie situation. The Oilers don’t know if Scrivens is a number one guy, how could they? What this deal does is it gives Scrivens some security in term, 2 years is a good number of years for him to grow into the number spot, and the dollars leave enough room to still bring in a de facto 1b to play behind Scrivens. The benefit of that is that it will not only push Scrivens to be better, but it also gives the Oilers a second option should Scrivens falter.
The Future
The Oilers don’t exactly have a plethora of youth coming up the pipeline in net. They have Laurent Broissot and Tyler Bunz as their two most promising goaltending prospects. Neither of these guys has the pedigree of a budding and future number 1 guy in net.
Which means with Scrivens as the 1a moving forward, they can either sign a guy like Khudobin out of Carolina in the off-season to split the starts, or they can bring Bachman up from the farm and hope that a tandem of Scrivens(60 games)-Bachman(20games) can hold the fort next year.
Rumor has it that Bryzgalov turned down a contract extension, and as such he is not an option moving forward. It’s not a huge loss considering he hasn’t exactly been a glowing addition to this team. Bryzgalov could be moved by Wednesday should a team come calling with a 5th round pick.
The Next Step
This quote from Scrivens is fantastic “No one hands you a starting job. Now the hard work begins. I need to compete now and hope and come to camp next year and win the job.”
Scrivens understands the contract is not a golden ticket, the Oilers want, no the Oilers need Scrivens to take this as an opportunity to become a number 1 guy in the NHL. Dubnyk was given this same opportunity and he dropped the ball (Dubnyk was placed on waivers today by Nashville to make room for Rinne coming off injury…)
Meanwhile the Oilers are going to be actively seeking another guy to bring in behind Scrivens and challenge for that number one job. The big fish out there will be likely a long shot and not in the plans (Halak, Miller, Hiller). The targets for me in the off-season would be Khudobin (likely gets a contract from Carolina), Brian Elliot or Justin Peters. These are guys that are not/never have been number 1 goalies, meaning they will be motivated at the chance to fight for a number 1 spot in Edmonton. Even with the Scrivens signing the number 1 spot is very much up for grabs.
Wrap up
This writer likes the deal, it’s perfect for both sides. Expectation was actually that it might come in at 3 years around 3 million. This type of bridge contract is exactly what it takes to make a guy win the net. Scrivens will come in motivated and ready to work.
Scrivens may not be the answer in net; it is far too early to tell. But at the very least Mact makes a move to give him a chance, and leaves the door open to bring in a strong competitive backup to either push Scrivens to be better, or to win the job from Scrivens. This wont be Dubnyk/Labarbera in September, think more like Bernier/Reimer (this is the hope) bring in two young guys hungry to become number 1 goalies and let them duke it out. Competition breeds excellence.