The Oilers and Mike Babcock may have just found their Marc-Andre Fleury
Photo credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
The Edmonton Oilers rebuilt their crease with three goalies this summer.
Whether it works may not depend on any of them.
TSN analyst Jamie McLennan loves the setup, praising the Frederik Andersen, Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi trio and calling Levi a young Marc-Andre Fleury.
He is not wrong about the talent. The names are fine, and the injury insurance is real.
McLennan's Fleury comparison flatters Levi, and Jarry's bounce-back case is real after a rough half-season since the Edmonton trade.
But the debate keeps circling the goalies when the deciding variable is the man holding the clipboard.
Babcock has never shared a net
Mike Babcock spent three seasons riding Andersen in Toronto, starting him 66 games twice and 60-plus every year.
That is not a coach who rotates. That is a coach who finds his guy and runs him until something breaks.
Across stops in Detroit and Toronto, Babcock built his identity on a workhorse starter, not a committee.
He also has not coached an NHL game since Toronto fired him in 2019, so nobody has seen him adapt.
Now Edmonton is asking him to do the one thing his career says he avoids: split starts three ways and keep everyone fresh through April.
The tell arrives by American Thanksgiving
Andersen already sees it coming himself, admitting his 66-game days are "probably over."
The question is whether Babcock believes that too, or whether the first cold streak from Jarry sends him back to the goalie he trusts.
Watch the November games-played splits, not the July depth chart.
If Andersen is quietly at a 40-game pace by American Thanksgiving, the three-goalie plan was a press-conference idea, not a real one.
The talent was never the real risk here. The coach's instincts always were.
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