The Oilers’ goalie pipeline is suddenly crowded, and Connor Ungar is right in the middle of the squeeze.
Ungar was the best save-percentage goalie in the entire Edmonton organization last season, a sharp rise for a player who wasn’t drafted, kept pushing through setbacks, and finally forced his way into the conversation. But even with that kind of surge, the road to the NHL looks steep now that Edmonton appears to be working with what amounts to an “every goalie everywhere all at once” setup.
The numbers alone tell the story. Edmonton has eight goalies under contract for next season, but only six starter and traditional back-up jobs to hand out. That leaves little room for anyone to separate, even in a system that has become the deepest it’s had since Grant Fuhr and Andy Moog were breaking into the NHL in the early 1980s.
Ungar’s path to this point has been anything but straightforward. The COVID fiasco wiped out what should have been a big year when he was 18.
He was the Brandon Wheat Kings’ backup goalie and got into only eight games in the WHL’s lockdown-truncated 24-game season. The next year he won the starting job and thrived, then did it again as a 20-year-old with Moose Jaw.
Still, no pro contract came.
He spent one season in Canadian university hockey at Brock, dominated there, and that finally earned him an Entry Level contract with the Oilers. But his first year on that two-year deal didn’t go the way he needed it to. As a 22-year-old with the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Comets, he was outplayed by fellow WHL prospect Brett Brochu.
His place in the organization slipped even further when Samuel Jonsson and Nathaniel Day arrived last fall and took the Fort Wayne jobs, forcing Ungar to move around between ECHL teams.
Then everything changed. By New Year 2026, he had ripped off a .940-plus save percentage across three ECHL teams and the Bakersfield Condors. His Bakersfield call-up came after Stuart Skinner was traded, Calvin Pickard faded, and veteran goalie Connor Ingram earned his AHL call-up to the Oilers.
But the picture around him has shifted again. Ingram and Pickard are now out of the organization, while Edmonton has added NHL veteran Frederick Andersen, AHL standout Devon Levi, and new prospect Eemil Vinni on a minor league contract.
So where does Ungar fit now? In the Cult of Hockey’s prospect rankings, he sits 7th overall, behind only Samuel Jonsson at 4th overall and newcomer Devon Levi.
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For Calgary, the timing makes the gamble worth watching. The forward group still has uncertainty around the edges, and Nylander will get a chance to show he can fit into that mix as the organization sorts through its options. He has not played an NHL game since 2024, so this is less about reputation than about whether he can force his way back into the conversation. [Read more 🡒]