Inside Calvin Pickard's long journey to starting Oilers' Round 1 playoff games

New York Times

01-05-2025

LOS ANGELES — This was never supposed to be the plan for Calvin Pickard.
That Pickard has started the last three playoff games for the Edmonton Oilers isn't how coach Kris Knoblauch would have drawn it up a few months ago.
The Oilers started the season by charting a course for how to best prepare Stuart Skinner for a long playoff run. Pickard's role, as it's often been in his career, was to relieve Skinner and provide mentorship to the younger goalie.
Advertisement
But Skinner's inconsistent play and late-season concussion changed Knoblauch's thinking to the point where he knew he'd have to rely on Pickard.
'We're very fortunate that Calvin, who's a typical backup goalie, is a gamer,' Knoblauch said. 'He's ready. He likes the pressure. A lot of credit to him.'
And so it's been the veteran journeyman who's backstopped the Oilers from a 2-0 deficit to a 3-2 advantage in their first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings.
'I want to pitch in any way I can,' Pickard said.
It's only fitting Pickard's in this situation in this manner. After all, little about the 33-year-old's career has turned out as planned.
Outside of Pickard himself, no one knows that better than his personal goalie coach, Paul Fricker.
The two met when the pupil was just 15 and Fricker was guiding the netminders for the Western Hockey League's Seattle Thunderbirds. Pickard was a workhorse for the T-birds back then and wound up setting the league's all-time saves and minutes played records, doing so in just four seasons rather than the maximum five.
Pickard was on his way to being an NHL goaltender. It took most of three seasons with the American Hockey League's Lake Erie Monsters, but Pickard broke through during the 2014-15 season with the Colorado Avalanche — the team that drafted him the second round in 2010.
His breakout campaign came in 2016-17, when he appeared in 50 games and posted a respectable .904 save percentage for the last-place Avalanche. He was Canada's starting goaltender at the World Championship and went toe-to-toe with future Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist in the gold medal game, only to lose in a shootout.
Pickard was then selected by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 expansion draft and was supposed to back up Marc-Andre Fleury. As Fricker said, Pickard 'naively thought' Vegas would be his team.
Just as that inaugural season began, the Golden Knights plucked Malcolm Subban off waivers and ditched Pickard. That sent Pickard on a nomadic trek across the minor leagues with cups of coffee in the NHL for the next six-plus seasons.
Advertisement
It wasn't always easy, but seldom did Pickard get sour or cynical with his career prospects.
'He's never given up on himself,' Fricker said. 'He's stayed singularly minded and focused on doing what needed to be done at a given time.'
Fricker likens Pickard to a 'chameleon' because he's easily adapted to any situation and, without fail, with a great attitude. However, that also got the goalie pigeonholed.
He was viewed as someone who could support a younger netminder an organization had invested more in. That started when he left Vegas and went to the AHL's Toronto Marlies to work in a tandem with Garret Sparks. They split time in the regular season, but Sparks got the net in the playoffs.
'I've been at this 45 years,' Fricker said. 'He might top the list on mentally tough, even though his demeanor doesn't show it. He hasn't just endured. He's actually succeeded and been effective.'
He's done so without much championing. That's because Pickard's style has often been the subject of concern and criticism.
Fricker calls Pickard an 'in-betweener,' someone who was caught between two stylistic eras of goaltending.
'I'm talking the difference between just going out and allowing it to happen, and all the form and technique that started to override the position,' Fricker said.
During the 2022 offseason, Pickard signed a two-year contract with the Oilers to be the organizational No. 3 behind Jack Campbell and Skinner. He was given a chance with the Oilers only because of Campbell's poor start to the previous season.
Pickard knows his technical abilities aren't perfect; his strengths are his athleticism and the way he battles around the crease, and Fricker has never tried to reinvent that approach. Pickard poked fun at himself late in the regular season for doing a double-pad stack in 2025.
Advertisement
Knoblauch said what Pickard lacks in that regard, he makes up for in the way he thinks the game, reads the play and skates. The latter skill is a hallmark of Fricker's teachings.
'Calvin's been very valuable since I've been here,' Knoblauch said. 'Think about the games that he's come in. He has a winning record as a backup goalie in the regular season. Last year, we put him in in the playoffs, and he puts in two really good games against Vancouver. Lets Skins reset. Skins had a good run after that.'
It took a lot of guts for Knoblauch and Oilers goalie coach Dustin Schwartz to veer away from Skinner in the third period of Game 3 in that second-round series against the Canucks. It also took Pickard's puck-stopping efforts to make them look smart.
He made an impact in a Game 4 win, stopping 19 of 21 shots. He was just as good in Game 5 with 32 saves, but J.T. Miller scored in the final minute to restore the Canucks' series lead. The Oilers went back to Skinner for Game 6, a move that wasn't necessarily met with universal approval within the dressing room given how well Pickard had played.
'You can make the argument he saved the playoffs for them,' Fricker said.
That's not hyperbole. Had the Oilers stuck with Skinner in Game 4 and he continued to struggle, the Oilers easily could have been facing a 3-1 deficit with little hope of recovering. Instead, Pickard helped turn the tide.
This season, he's doing it again.
Pickard is quick to point out that his teammates are playing much better in front of him than they did for Skinner. It's not like he's stealing them games. But he's been providing steady netminding, especially over the last 5 1/2 periods dating to Kevin Fiala's breakaway marker midway though the second period of Game 4.
'It's sooner in the playoffs,' Pickard said of the difference between 2024 and 2025. 'Towards the end of the regular season, I got a decent amount of games to feel ready. Last year, I was off for quite a while before I stepped in against Vancouver.'
Advertisement
Pickard's insertion into the net isn't the reason the Oilers are ahead against the Kings.
He didn't come in and immediately change the complexion of the series. In fact, he allowed a goal on the first shot he saw from Kings sniper Adrian Kempe in the third period of Game 2, albeit on an uncontested chance in close. He allowed seven goals over the next two games, including a couple of iffy ones to Trevor Moore.
But Pickard has been solid since allowing that Fiala breakaway chance. He wasn't tested much from that point onward as the Oilers took over that contest, but he didn't allow another goal as part of a 38-save performance.
The Oilers' domination of the Kings continued in Game 5, but Pickard still had to do his part. He managed to keep out a Kempe breakaway attempt halfway through the game and got his right pad on a Fiala wrapround try with two minutes left with the Kings at six-on-five and in search of a tying goal.
'Picks is just making every save he needs to make,' winger Zach Hyman said. 'As a player, that gives you confidence that if you go out and do your job then everything is going to work out.'
'Picks has done a great job all year staying ready and staying sharp. The moment never seems to be too big for him,' fellow winger Evander Kane added. 'He's come into this series and been a big boost and done an incredible job for us.'
It's a testament to his perseverance and dedication to his craft. Fittingly, he earned the Oilers' nomination for the Masterton Trophy from the Edmonton chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association last month after a 22-win campaign.
'It's been impressive to watch, to be a part of to some degree,' said Fricker, who gets a call from Pickard daily and still works with him every summer in Winnipeg.
The Oilers players were thrilled that Pickard got that Masterton recognition. He's regarded as someone who's down-to-earth, a tremendous teammate and a dressing room cutup thanks to his quick and wry sense of humour.
Advertisement
That means a lot to Pickard, but he's always wanted more. He's taken a long and circuitous route to get to this point, but he's in an important role for the Oilers right now.
'It feels good getting your name called upon early,' Pickard said. 'I just want to go out and do my job. I've been saying it all year, playing behind our team, it's a blessing for me. I just want to keep continuing to do what I can do and help the team win.'