It has been a long time since the Edmonton Oilers could lean on a goaltender to bail them out.
Ten games into the 2026-27 season, they’re 8-1-1 and sitting on a league-best .850 point percentage, and while the top line has done plenty of damage, the bigger story has been in net. Devon Levi and Tristan Jarry have been a major reason the Oilers are off to such a strong start.
The raw season numbers don’t scream dominance just yet. Jarry has a .873 save percentage and a 2.97 goals-against average, while Levi sits at .887 and 3.11. But zoom in on the last eight games, and the picture changes fast: the two have combined to allow 18 goals on 193 shots, which works out to a .918 save percentage.
That matters in a league where scoring is climbing and stops are getting harder to come by. Three weeks into the season, the NHL’s save percentage is .892, and if the year ended today, that would be the worst league average since 1992-93. In that environment, Levi and Jarry have done what the Oilers have rarely had in the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl era - they’ve kept pucks out.
The Oilers have already gotten a couple of true steal-one performances. On Oct.
7, Levi turned aside 29 of 31 shots in a 5-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks, then followed that up by stopping 39 of 40 in his next start. Edmonton was outshot 31-19 in one of those games and 40-17 in the other.
Even in their second-to-most recent game against the Minnesota Wild, the Oilers were fortunate to come away with the win.
The eye test has matched the numbers. These are the kinds of saves Edmonton hasn’t been used to getting from its goalies, and that includes a glove stop Levi made against the Wild on Tuesday.
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The underlying metrics still show there’s work to do. HockeyStats lists Levi at minus-1.8 Goals Saved Above Expected and Jarry at minus-3.1.
But those totals are shaped heavily by the Oilers’ first two games. Jarry’s minus-4.08 GSAx against the Vancouver Canucks in the opener has since been followed by a respectable 0.97 over his last two starts.
Levi opened his Oilers stint with a minus-4.13 GSAx, but he’s posted a 2.57 GSAx over his last six games, a mark that was even better before Thursday’s victory.
That’s why the current stretch feels meaningful, even if it’s still a small sample. The last seven games have looked like something Edmonton has been searching for for years: actual help in goal.
There have been false alarms before. Last season, Jarry and Connor Ingram backstopped back-to-back shutouts against the St.
Louis Blues and Canucks, and it briefly looked like the Oilers might have solved the problem in the crease. That didn’t stick, so nobody is ready to call this fixed just yet.
Still, this is the closest Edmonton has come to a dependable tandem in the McDavid/Draisaitl era. And right now, Levi and Jarry are giving the Oilers exactly the kind of goaltending they haven’t had regularly in a long time.
In Other News...
Oilers Suddenly Have Questions Their Record Was Hiding
The record still looked shiny, but the performance in Toronto did not. Edmonton was hammered 7-2 by the Maple Leafs, taking its second regulation loss of the season and exposing some early cracks in a start that had largely masked those issues. Leon Draisaitl scored twice to keep the Oilers from being completely swallowed up, but the night also featured goals from former Oilers Jack Roslovic and Troy Stecher, a reminder of how quickly a game can tilt when the margins are thin.
The bigger concern was how little resistance Edmonton offered in its own end, especially with defensive breakdowns piling up and certain line combinations struggling to find their footing. Tristan Jarry had a rough night in net as Toronto kept finding space and finishing chances, leaving the Oilers with more questions than answers as they try to sort out whether this was just one bad result or the first clear sign that their early success needs a closer look. [Read more 🡒]
Former Oiler Jack Roslovic Is Suddenly Becoming A Problem In Toronto
Jack Roslovic did not linger long in Edmonton, but his next stop has quickly turned him into a nuisance for the Oilers' fan base from afar. Since landing with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the former Oiler has piled up 10 points in 12 games, a sharp enough burst to make his early run in Toronto look like more than a hot streak. Roslovic has also pointed back to his time with Edmonton as part of the reason his approach has sharpened, crediting what he learned there with helping him settle into a better daily standard.
For Edmonton, the bigger picture only gets more complicated because Connor McDavid keeps operating at another level entirely, sitting on 31 points in 10 games and threatening one of those seasons that gets talked about for years. And while Roslovic's form in Toronto is the immediate sting, the broader conversation around player movement is also getting louder, with some NHL players privately believing teams should have more control when trade requests enter the picture. It is the kind of debate that only gets louder when a former Oiler starts producing for a rival and reminding everyone how thin the line can be between a departure and a regret. [Read more 🡒]
Babcock Just Called Out What Really Doomed The Oilers Against Toronto
The Oilers 7-2 loss to the Maple Leafs was the kind of night that leaves little room for soft explanations. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard all chipped in offensively, but Edmonton was still buried by Torontos pace, structure and edge, with the defensive side of the puck never finding a foothold. Tristan Jarry got the start in goal and gave up six, adding to a game in which the Oilers simply could not keep up.
What stood out afterward was not just the margin, but the familiar frustration around the effort level. Mike Babcock took aim at the teams compete, saying the standard against a team like Toronto should have been obvious from the opening puck drop. For an Edmonton group trying to establish consistency, the concern is less about one ugly result than whether this was an isolated lapse or another reminder of how quickly things unravel when the urgency disappears. [Read more 🡒]