Grading the Skinner for Jarry trade: Oilers pay to make a lateral move in net

The Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins came together on Friday morning to consummate a deal everybody kind of saw coming, with goaltenders Stuart Skinner and Tristan Jarry swapping places in a five-piece trade.

TRADE 🔄 The #Oilers have acquired goaltender Tristan Jarry & forward Samuel Poulin from the @penguins in exchange for goaltender Stuart Skinner, defenceman Brett Kulak & a second-round draft selection in 2029. https://t.co/30mRcsl4YD

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) December 12, 2025

It’s a homecoming of sorts for Jarry, a former member of the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings who has appeared in 307 career games with the Penguins. It’s also a long-expected departure for Skinner, who has become a lightning rod for criticism from Oilers fans amid wild fluctuations in his play over the last few seasons.

Given the other pieces that changed places on Friday, it’s easy to see why the Penguins made this deal, but the justification for the other side of the swap is much murkier. Are the Oilers actually any closer to winning the Stanley Cup with Jarry in Skinner’s place? Let’s dig into it.

(Before we continue, it’s also worth noting that the Oilers made a second and much less consequential deal on Friday, sending a 2027 third-round pick to the Nashville Predators in exchange for defenseman Spencer Stastney. We won’t be handing out Trade Grades for that swap, but it was generally reasonable for both sides.)

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Receive:

G Stuart Skinner, 27 – $2.6-million cap hit through 2026
D Brett Kulak, 31 – $2.75-million cap hit through 2026
2029 second-round pick

This is an absolute no-brainer for Kyle Dubas and the Penguins. Not even a year ago, that Jarry contract was considered by most to be completely immovable. The Surrey, B.C., product started to fall off the map as an NHL starter almost immediately after he signed his five-year deal with the Penguins in 2023, posting a thoroughly middling .903 save percentage in 51 games during the 2023-24 campaign and splitting the following season between Pittsburgh and the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins after clearing waivers this past January. After all that, it’s a minor miracle that the Penguins didn’t have to pay to get Jarry’s deal off the books.

Instead, Dubas managed to parlay Jarry and a pending Group 6 unrestricted free agent in Poulin — who cleared waivers in October — into three tangible assets for the Penguins organization. Skinner and Kulak are both pending UFAs who could either assist the Penguins as they continue to mount an unexpected bid for a playoff berth or be flipped once more ahead of the trade deadline for additional futures. The pick is, well, a pick, even if it’s from four drafts into the future.

Skinner is the most interesting piece in the deal. The 6’4″ netminder has spent his entire NHL career to date with his hometown Oilers, having been thrust into the starter’s job four years ago in an absence of any other options and expected to carry the mail between the pipes for a team with overwhelming championship aspirations. To say Skinner has played under the microscope in Edmonton would be the understatement of the century. It’d be unreasonable to expect him to turn into an A-tier starter overnight now that he’s left the Oilers — not everybody can be Devan Dubnyk — but it also wouldn’t be all that surprising to see Skinner outplay Jarry going forward now that they’ve switched spots.

Kulak isn’t a long-term piece for the Penguins, and he’s uncharacteristically struggled to limit scoring chances against in the early stages of the season, but with three Stanley Cup Final runs under his belt to this point in his 611-game NHL career, his name will be one to watch as the trade deadline approaches. And, again … the pick is a pick. Seriously, how did the Penguins get a pick in this deal?

Grade: A

EDMONTON OILERS

Receive:

G Tristan Jarry, 30 – $5.375-million cap hit through 2028
RW Samuel Poulin, 24 – $775,000 cap hit through 2026

What’s that saying about making a move for the sake of making a move? Right … “Don’t do it.” Well, seemingly out of a place of severe desperation, the Oilers have done it.

On Friday, the Oilers locked themselves into the final two and a half years of Jarry’s contract, which carries a $5.375-million annual cap hit. We mentioned it up above, but just a reminder here: Pittsburgh put Jarry on waivers and sent him to the AHL in January. And now, after going 9-3-1 with a .909 save percentage in 14 games with the Penguins to start the 2025-26 season, he’s suddenly worth Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak, and a second-round pick? That’s hard to fathom, but it’s just what tends to happen when one team is straining to make a move — and when their trading partner is content to set a price and stick to it.

The Penguins clearly weren’t overly attached to Jarry at this juncture, but why would they move him unless the Oilers demonstrated how badly they wanted him? The end result of the Oilers’ capitulation is a goaltending tandem that is no better on paper than it was 24 hours ago. Should Oilers fans really be more confident heading into the postseason — assuming they make it this year — with a pairing of Jarry and Calvin Pickard? In theory, would it not have made more sense to try Jarry and Skinner together, if possible? And if the Penguins were truly dead-set on a second-rounder as the price for Jarry, would it not have made more sense for the Oilers to go in a different direction?

None of this would have been necessary had the Oilers stood pat at the 2021 NHL Draft and just selected Jesper Wallstedt like their fans wanted them to. They probably could’ve found a way to acquire Yaroslav Askarov from the Predators when they made him available in the summer of 2024. Instead, we’re here, less than two weeks away from Christmas, with more pressure on them than ever, and after handing the Penguins a pile of assets, the Oilers’ most glaring area of need might still be their goaltending. But now, if it doesn’t work out for them this time around, the Oilers will have Jarry’s deal on their payroll for two more seasons after this one — and despite having similarly pedestrian numbers, he makes more than twice as much as Skinner does.

Not great, Stan!

Grade: D

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