Oilers Avoid With Deslauriers

The Edmonton Oilers were almost going to solve their contract issue with their last goaltender, Jeff Deslauriers via the arbitration route next week, but both sides were able to reach a deal late on Saturday night, which sees the 26-year old keeper sign a 1-year deal, reportedly worth $1.05 million.  Deslauriers will now be an unrestricted free agent next Summer, after this deal is completed, which gives you the feeling that the Oilers may be comfortable running with three goalies, depending on Nikolai Khabibulin's situation down in Arizona.

Deslauriers was also the last player scheduled for an arbitration hearing to sign, so no one else will be avoiding their hearings from here on in.  Still waiting on a decision, but that's another story altogether.

By the end of the 2010 season, Deslauriers was taking most of the starts in the Edmonton nets, but for as admirably as he played, the team in front of him was already beaten and broken and the wins were few and far between.  At the end of the year, he finished with a 16-28-4 record with 3 shutouts and 3 assists for 41 points and the 29th rank among all goalies in my pool rankings.  That's actually a pretty good record for a goalie on a last place team.  I know the games I watched saw him play pretty well, but couldn't overcome some poor defense and was left hanging a lot.

The 2011 season holds a bit of intrigue, more to the point, the rest of the 2010 off-season holds a lot of intrigue, leading up to the 2011 season.  With Khabibulin getting tried for an extreme DUI in Arizona, the goaltending situation is now waiting for his August 28th court hearing to decide his fate.  There really has been no determination by the Oilers to suggest what they will do with their goaltending, but Deslauriers could very well be the number one guy come October 7th, when the Oilers open up their schedule at home to the Flames.