This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Calvin Pickard
Edmonton Oilers Goaltender
An .8999 in 36 games, and a backup who keeps being asked to be more.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | COL | 16 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 35 | 2.35 | 0 | 511 | .931 |
| 2015-16 | COL | 20 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 42 | 2.56 | 1 | 539 | .922 |
| 2016-17 | COL | 50 | 15 | 31 | 2 | 140 | 2.98 | 2 | 1461 | .904 |
| 2017-18 | TOR | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3.83 | 0 | 28 | .857 |
| 2018-19 | PHI/ARI | 17 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 48 | 3.86 | 1 | 384 | .875 |
| 2019-20 | DET | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 5.46 | 0 | 74 | .797 |
| 2020-21 | DET | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 3.16 | 0 | 127 | .874 |
| 2021-22 | DET | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 4.30 | 0 | 72 | .875 |
| 2023-24 | EDM | 23 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 53 | 2.45 | 1 | 581 | .909 |
| 2024-25 | EDM | 36 | 22 | 10 | 1 | 85 | 2.71 | 0 | 849 | .900 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 175 | 69 | 71 | 12 | 447 | 2.89 | 5 | 4626 | .903 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
22-10-1 in 36 games, .8999 with a 2.71 average on 849 shots.
22 wins from a backup is a large number and it came on a club that scores. The save percentage is below league average and it was better than the starter’s.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 206, and small by modern standards, and the game is compact and reactive. He is quick, he challenges, and he plays with a great deal of energy.
The weakness is a scramble and a screened shot — he does not cover a net by occupying it, and the rebound control is ordinary. He is at his best in a run of games and noticeably worse cold, which for a man asked to play 35 a season is awkward.
The Mental Game
Thirteen professional seasons, seven organisations, hundreds of American League games, and a genuine playoff run at 32 that nobody expected.
He is unflappable in the way that only a goaltender who has been sent down five times can be, and there is no record of a bad night carrying forward.
The Intangibles
At 33, on a modest contract, having been the more reliable of Edmonton’s two goaltenders for two seasons running.
That is the uncomfortable fact rather than a compliment. A club with this much invested in its forwards has spent two Cup finals hoping that a career backup and an inconsistent starter would be enough, and the answer has been no twice.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
- ordinaryraised, and called ordinary
- he lacks itraised, and he does not have it
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
“He is quick, he challenges, and he plays with a great deal of energy.”
“The weakness is a scramble and a screened shot”
“he does not cover a net by occupying it”
“the rebound control is ordinary”