Jarry Could Make Bid For Team Canada If Oilers Dominate

Team Canada is going to be exciting and interesting with many of the decisions. All of the players who were there last year for 4 Nations are not guaranteed to be back. There will likely be a couple of changes at every position - forward, defense, goalie - but there are plenty of goalies who could be in the mix as Canadians have played well in net this season.

At the 4 Nations Faceoff, Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill, and Sam Montembeault all went, but those three just don't have the numbers to warrant going back. The only one of them that has a chance because he led Team Canada to a win would be Binnington, but he has a 3.49 GAA, .869 SV%, and -9.78 GSAx (goals saved above expected). Hill is injured with only five games played this season and has a 2.73 GAA, .888 SV%, and -0.16 GSAx. The Montreal Canadiens have had to call up a goalie to potentially do anything in net as Montembeault has a 3.65 GAA, .857 SV%, and -6.26 GSAx.

But, fortunately, there are Canadian netminders like Logan Thompson, Mackenzie Blackwood, Scott Wedgewood, Darcy Kuemper, and Tristan Jarry, though not many are giving Jarry any mind when it comes to potential Team Canada goalies right now.

Besides Calvin Pickard, among goalies who have played at least 10 games this season, Binnington and Montembeault are the worst in terms of GAA and SV%. The five goalies mentioned above as potential replacements are the five leaders among Canadian goalies this season in SV%.

The Edmonton Oilers have flipped a switch in December the last few seasons and gone on very good runs to close out the regular season and all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. Jarry is an upgrade in every way statistically to Stuart Skinner and the Oilers have already started putting up big goal games once the calendar turned to December. If the Oilers are able to continue the strong play and go on a 45-50 game run where they win 2-3 times as much as they lose, Jarry will have started a significant amount of those games and benefited.

The Olympics are much sooner than the end of the season, but there is still time to have a number of good games before the roster is announced on New Year's Eve. And if Jarry isn't one of the top-3 chosen, he could continue to play well, there be an injury, and he's brought later.