Looking at where the Tristan Jarry trade ranks among the worst Oilers deals |
It hasn’t even been three months yet, but the Tristan Jarry trade is already starting to look like it could end up being one of the worst in Edmonton Oilers history.
That may be a bit of a hot take, but Jarry hasn’t performed nearly as well as one would’ve hoped. Over the 13 games he’s appeared in, Jarry has conceded 53 goals on 365 shots, poor enough for an .855 save percentage.
Aside from leaving his third start with an injury, there have been just three instances in which Jarry has finished with a save percentage of .900 or higher, stopping all 31 shots against the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 17 for a shutout, posting a .900 save percentage on Jan. 26 against the Anaheim Ducks, and Tuesday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche, where he posted a .917 save percentage in relief.
The Oilers have always lacked a goaltender in the Connor McDavid/Leon Draisaitl era, except for the first two or three seasons of Cam Talbot’s tenure early in McDavid’s career. Stuart Skinner showed glimpses of potentially being a successful netminder — look no further than the last two Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars — but it became increasingly clear he was not going to be the guy.
So on Dec. 12, 2025, the Oilers sent Skinner, Brett Kulak, and a 2029 second-round pick to the Penguins for Jarry and prospect Samuel Poulin. There are a few things that make this trade so bad. For starters, Kulak was flipped by the Penguins, netting Samuel Girard and a 2028 second-round pick.
Another facet of why this trade is so bad is that the Oilers are now stuck with Jarry as their guy. It was a lateral move in goal from the start, but Skinner’s cap hit was at least coming off the books. Instead, they traded for Jarry, who has a cap hit of $5.375 million until the end of the 2027-28 season.
It’s a bad trade, and it was even at the time. But the question is, how does it compare to the other bad trades? And no, I’m not including the Adam Larsson for Taylor Hall deal because I don’t think that’s a bad trade.
Wayne Gretzky trade
Look, if you trade (or, in this case, sell) the best point-getter of all time, it has to be considered an all-time bad trade. On Aug. 9, 1988, the Oilers sent Wayne Gretzky, Mike Krushelnyski, and Marty McSorley to the Los Angeles Kings for a trio of draft picks, Jimmy Carson, Martin Gélinas, and $15 million.
Gélinas went on to have a productive career, while Carson was productive early in his career before fizzling out before he even turned 30. Martin Ručinský was selected with the 1991 first, and he went on to have a productive career, despite playing just two games with the Oilers. Nick Stajduhar, their pick in 1993, only played two NHL games.
The thing is, the Oilers ended up winning the Stanley Cup less than two years after this trade, sweeping Gretzky and the Kings in the second round. Gélinas, still a rookie, chipped in with two goals and five points in 20 games, and went on to play another three seasons after hoisting the Cup.
Gretzky never won the Cup again, with the closest he got being a showdown against the Montréal Canadiens in 1993, the final time a Canadian team won it all. That said, you have to wonder how many more Cups the Oilers would’ve won if Gretzky played his entire career as an Oiler.
The front page of the Aug. 10, 1988 edition of the........