With the Oilers waiving Jonas Gustavsson, what are the other options?

This morning, it was announced the Oilers waived Jonas Gustavsson among other moves. Trin Potratz wrote it up here.

We ran a poll at the Oilers Rig to see who you figured would be a good replacement option for The Monster, so I thought I would look a little more into the options listed.

If you had a choice, which goaltender below would you choose?

The first option seems like a solid one. Strong sv%, solid GAA but the cap hit becomes an issue. The fourth option would be a good one as well. Strong sv% as well as HDsv%, solid GAA and a reasonable contract hit.

Let’s see some names now.

The Oilers have some options here, which also include recalling either Laurent Brossoit or Nick Ellis from the AHL. Read this from Willis:

Laurent Brossoit (20 GP):
– First 10 GP: 0.927 SV%
– Last 10 GP: 0.887 SC%
This is what Bakersfield’s coach said on @OilersNow on Friday: pic.twitter.com/T8JD0p2r7T

— Jonathan Willis (@JonathanWillis) January 9, 2017

Nick Ellis is having a solid enough season, given that he has played half the time Brossoit has. Ellis has a .923 sv%, 2.51 GAA in 11 GP, Brossoit a .909 sv% and 2.71 GAA in 20 GP.

There is an option there for the Oilers to recall one with Gustavsson likely heading to Bakersfield now. Mark Spector suggested that Brossoit would get the recall to see what he has prior to the team making another move. I’m not sure I’m sold on that and would rather see the team trade for a backup. Brossoit needs more time in the AHL. As seen above, he has had some struggles in the second half of his season so far.

Back to the charts above, I would like to see the Oilers deal for Berra. He is currently in the AHL in the Panthers organization, but I think he has the best ability to be the best backup available right now. McElhinney is also an option, given that he was waived by the Columbus Blue Jackets earlier today.

Berra’s name was also brought up as an option for the team by Bob Stauffer on OilersNow today.

I think making a move for Halak would be great, but with one year left with a good size cap hit it would be a tougher deal to make. Maybe they would look at swapping Pouliot for Halak? Who knows.

Moving forward, it is at least nice to see the Oilers taking this season seriously. Putting Puljujarvi in the minors and Gustavsson on the waiver wire shows that this team is concerned about not only the present, but also the future. I would’ve liked to see Gustavsson succeed as much as the next guy in Edmonton, but he was probably doomed from the start.

At least he had nice pads though!