Ducks’ Dostal contract is not a contract comparable to Stuart Skinner – Hockey Writer – Edmonton Oiler
The Anaheim Ducks recently re-signed goalkeeper Lukas Dostal for five years a year and worth $6.5 million, leaving some Edmonton Oilers fans wondering about their future between the pipelines, specifically what that means for Stuart Skinner’s next contract. Fans have divided the middle with Skinner entering the 2025-26 season, but either way, the Oiler will bring him into the upcoming campaign. However, Dostal’s new contract should not be considered equivalent to Skinner’s contract.
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Some experts believe that the two goalkeepers are comparable, and considering Skinner’s playoff success over the past few seasons, comparing those two seasons is inevitable, but with a deeper attitude to statistics and analysis, Dustall is better than Skinner.
Over the past three seasons, Skinner has scored his fourth goal in the playoffs (GSAX), at 0.03. While Dostal was unable to climb the playoffs because the Ducks were rebuilding, he performed much better than Skinner.
Fans will immediately turn to percentage savings (SV%) and target average (GAA) as their first indicators, indicating good performance for goalkeepers, but the fact is that both statistics are exaggerated or buckled based on how strong the teams ahead of them are. As far as Destal is concerned, they look good, but not very good because of the team in front of him. As far as Skinner is concerned, he looks average, but the team in front of him makes his stats look better.
In the 2024-25 regular season, Skinner had a GSAX of 7, while Dostal had a GSAX of 22.49. When looking at the goal reserve average (GSAA), Dostal has an effect of 4.9, while Skinner has a duration of -6.21. Every advanced statistic prefers dostal, but for some reason, popular experts continue to turn to team-inflatable SV% and GAA.
In this comparison, it all depends on the situation each goalkeeper is in. If you swap two goalkeepers now, Skinner will struggle and make all his stats go down, and Dostal may move towards the Vezina Trophy. Yes, that’s how big the difference is.
This season, the situation for both teams is changing. The Oilers are introducing a new goalkeeper coach, and the Ducks have taken some moves to show that they want to make the playoffs this season, with both teams looking in a mode that wants to make the playoffs. This should give fans a better understanding of the differences between the two goalkeepers and the better of goalkeeper Dostale.
Skinner can bounce and earn decent expansion
Now, it’s not sitting here with Bash Skinner, as it’s impressive to have a team back-to-back finals at the Stanley Cup, but his game has some fine tuning. The purpose of this article is to close the idea that Dostal and Skinner can match in any way. They are not. Whether you compare their situation, playoff experience or the team in front of them, there is no similar proof of comparing the two.
Skinner’s fight against the Los Angeles Kings in the first round was a problem, but he bounced back after he got back online and helped them reach a few bad games.
Actually, this will be the season for testing Skinner. If he bounces under a new goalkeeper coach and finds some consistency, the Oiler may seek to expand on him, but he won’t be close to everything Dostal gets on the new contract.
If I had to guess what a new deal would look like, it’s safe to say that the bridge is coming from Skinner. He needs to prove himself that if he can show signs of growth, the oiler can reward him with a short-term extension worth about $2.5 million per year.
Comparing him to dostal is stupid and shouldn’t be done again.
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