With Khabibulin on trial the Oilers need to look at options in net

The Oilers should be looking for some insurance for Khabibulin - photo from Jimmy Jeong/Canadian Press

On the first day of NHL free agency last season, Steve Tambellini made his first – and to date only – big free agent signing when he inked Nikolai Khabibulin to a four year $15 million dollar deal. The reaction by many in Edmonton was that a cap hit of $3.75 million for four years for a 36 year old goalie with a history of injury problems was somewhat of a risk. That Khabibulin played only 18 games last season before requiring back surgery did little to make anyone think anything to the contrary.

But as if an 18 game season were not bad enough, things got worse on February 8 when he was arrested in Arizona for driving under the influence. The chargers were later increased to an extreme DUI when his blood alcohol content was found to be over 0.15. In fact his blood alcohol content of 0.164 was more than double the legal limit. Khabibulin will appear in court this morning in relation to this charge, and if found guilty faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 days in jail.

Some in Edmonton on message boards and on radio call in shows have suggested that the Oilers could use a conviction in this case to void the Khabibulin contract. In March I attended a lunch with Tambellini where another season ticket holder asked the GM if this was a possibility; Tambellini’s answer was an unequivocal no. While I know that what NHL general managers say often has an expiry date of their next breath (see Burke’s I have no interest in the Toronto GM position comments or Sutter’s denials of a trade involving Phaneuf as recent evidence of this) but I have a tough time believing that this is a road the Oilers would want to travel.

If they did try to void Khabibulin’s contract they would certainly meet opposition from the NHLPA who would without a doubt file a grievance with the league. Even if the Oilers were successful in getting the contract voided the likely downside would be that more than a few NHL free agents would see Edmonton as an even less desirable location than they do now. And if their efforts failed they’d be stuck with him for another three years, wouldn’t that be fun. As far as I’m concerned trying to use a potential DUI conviction to get out of the Khabibulin deal is a lose-lose situation for the Oilers.

But even though I think Khabibulin is going to be an Oiler this year (and for two more after this), I also think the Oilers need to plan for life without him because he could be in jail when the season starts, although that seems unlikely, and because his back problems could recur. In fact mc79hockey reported on Monday that Khabibulin’s rehab might not be quite on schedule right now; this was of course not the way Tambellini sees it. After watching the Devan Dubnyk-Jeff Deslauriers show last season I can’t imagine anyone in the organization would be too excited to see that combination take the reigns again for an extended period of time should Khabibulin not be available. So regardless of the reason, I think the Oilers need to be in the market for a cheap veteran backup.

Before the free agent period started Behind The Net looked at the free agent goalies available this year. To say the least, that list isn’t loaded with cheap options and the signings of Martin Biron, Chris Mason, Dan Ellis, and Alex Auld thins out the group even more. For this reason, Mr. DeBakey provided a list of AHL goalies ranked by save percentage over the past two years at The Copper & Blue yesterday. While I may not be thrilled about bringing in another AHL netminder, the Oilers might be able to find a better option than Deslauriers there (I think Dubnyk is the better of the two options now and will be the backup to start the year) and could result in an extra win or two maybe but I don’t know if that’s really what the team needs.

If there aren’t options in the NHL or AHL then what about Europe? There aren’t many options across the ocean right now but one that might be a potential fit for the Oilers would be Martin Gerber. After his performance Jonathon Willis looked at the idea of Gerber returning to the NHL. It’s an interesting idea and one I think the Oilers should look into because Gerber really fits the mould of what the Oilers need – he’s got NHL experience (226 games), he’d be cheap (probably $1 million at most), and he’d probably be willing to sign a one year deal. As far as I’m concerned that’s the trifecta the Oilers should be looking for. Gerber isn’t likely to be this years Craig Anderson but he’d be a better backup option for the Oilers if they had to play a large portion of the season without Khabibulin and at a $1 million I see more upside than downside to bringing him on board.

*****Update*****

The Edmonton Journal is reporting that Khabibulin’s trial date has been postponed until August. The date isn’t known yet but the mandatory minimum of 30 days in jail could certainly impact training camp now, probably not a good thing for a goalie who hasn’t played since November.