The numbers 40, 43 and 46 are relevant when looking at Nikolai Khabibulin’s night versus St.Louis on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He’s 40-years-old, he made 43 saves against the Blues, and he recorded the 46th shutout of his career. One more number to throw into the equation is three, as in the Edmonton Oilers have three more games before April 3 which is trade deadline day in the NHL.<\/p>\n
A week from now we’ll know what the future holds for Khabibulin and where his future will be for the next few months.<\/p>\n
It’s an interesting dilemma that sits on the desk of Steve Tambellini. What should the Edmonton Oilers\u2019 GM do with the goaltender? Keep him, keep him and maybe at some point re-sign him at a cut in pay rate or trade him. The reason such a situation exists is because of Khabibulin.<\/p>\n
As he showed the Blues and every other NHL team on Tuesday the Russian netminder has still got game.<\/p>\n
It’s not surprising to him but it might be to others. First off he’s the second oldest goalie in the NHL a mere eight months junior to Martin Brodeur. Age may just be a number but surgeries are not. In the last couple seasons Khabibulin had season ending back surgery and last spring it was off-season hip surgery.<\/p>\n
Last time I checked two important parts of the body for anyone but especially a goaltender. Now he isn’t without health hiccups as proven by the fact a groin problem caused him to miss eight games.<\/p>\n
Yet before and after the injury, Khabibulin has played like a goalie that’s still got it.<\/p>\n
His record is 3-3-1. His save % is .941. His goals against average is 1.93 and he just recorded his first shutout since Nov.3, 2011. If you\u2019re saying he hasn’t played much and the numbers are inflated because of a small sample size I agree. However if a team were interested in him, Khabibulin would provide an insurance policy that would make All State envious.<\/p>\n
You would be in good hands knowing that a Stanley Cup winning goalie, who can play when called on is sitting on your bench for the cost of two pay cheques. That scenario could make a few playoff bound GM’s sleep well at night.<\/p>\n
That also includes his current GM. The Oilers are in the hunt for a playoff spot. If that continues to the deadline, and after, parting ways with an experienced goalie might not be the right move. With age and injury in Khabibulin’s case it looks like the less he plays the more he gives you. Perfect for a team who doesn’t need him every night but on enough nights to make a difference.<\/p>\n
Thursday it’s Columbus, Saturday it’s Vancouver and Monday it will be Calgary. Edmonton’s final three opponents before deadline day. On deadline night the Oilers will be in Calgary.<\/p>\n
Will Khabibulin be in the Oilers net that night, will he be on Edmonton’s bench or be on another team? Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the NHL trade deadline approaches, Edmonton Oilers’ Nikolai Khabibulin is proving that he could be a valuable asset to a team looking for goaltending depth heading into the playoffs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535647,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[16219],"coauthors":[3004],"class_list":["post-535557","sn-blog-entry","type-sn-blog-entry","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-edmonton-oilers","sports-hockey","leagues-nhl","teams-edmonton-oilers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sn-blog-entry\/535557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sn-blog-entry"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sn-blog-entry"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535557"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sn-blog-entry\/535557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":535675,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sn-blog-entry\/535557\/revisions\/535675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535557"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=535557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}