ROSTER REDUX: Jack Campbell

EDMONTON, AB - It was a season of ups and downs for Oilers goaltender Jack Campbell.

Expectations were high for the 2022 NHL All-star heading into his first season donning the Blue & Orange. A big-time free agent deal meant big-time opportunity in a hockey market loaded with passion and rising standards, but Campbell was ready to face both head on.

The goaltender's excitement was palpable after making his contract official with the team.

"I'm just fired up," Campbell said after signing with the Oilers. "Watching the team in the playoffs, the group they have and seeing Evander (Kane) and Brett (Kulak) sign today, it's an exciting day and I just can't wait to be a part of this group and work hard for their goal of winning a Stanley Cup."

Campbell was a great fit for a very tight Oilers locker room. The goaltender was already familiar with several members of the squad having experienced playing with the Port Huron, Michigan product. Zach Hyman suited up with Campbell for parts of two season while with the Toronto Maple Leafs, whereas Darnell Nurse knew the goaltender stemming back from his time with the Soo Grey Hounds in the Ontario Hockey League and both men raved about Campbell's commitment to his craft on the ice and his jovial demeanour off the ice.

"An amazing person. Very nice guy. As a goaltender, he's somebody who just tries to push the envelope and push his abilities as far as he can with his work ethic," Hyman said.

"I think that will fit really seamlessly into the group that we have here, just extremely talented and competitive. A great addition for us."

"He's cheery, but he's a competitor. He wants to win. He works, he's one of the hardest workers I have played with," Nurse said. "I wouldn't take that soft-spoken demeanour to not think he's a competitor."

Once the regular season began, Campbell started the year winning six of his first nine starts but only allowed less than three goals against in two of those contests. In the meantime, rookie netminder Stuart Skinner began to emerge and slowly asserted himself as the Oilers go-to option between the pipes. After a Nov. 10 contest against the Carolina Hurricanes where Campbell allowed seven goals on 32 shots, he would only appear in six more games for Edmonton in the final months of 2022.

The talk about dealing with the pressure of living up to his new free-agent deal started to bubble up from local media, which Campbell addressed in his Jan. 6 media conference.

"There's always pressure on yourself, especially when you get to this level. I want to be great every night and the best part about having this job is we get the opportunity to go out and try to do that," Campbell said.

However, as the calendar turned, so did the goaltender's fortunes -- and it couldn't come at a better timing for the Oilers. While Skinner missed some time to witness the birth of his first child, Campbell's game was reformed. The 31-year-old rattled off nine consecutive victories in games he had started from Jan. 5 to Feb. 11 as the Oilers vaulted themselves back into contention in the Western Conference. Over the streak, Edmonton moved from fifth in the Pacific Division to second and only three points back of the Vegas Golden Knights.

"I thought Jack had moments in the season where he really stepped up. I thought specifically in January, Stuart and his wife had a child, and that opened the door for Jack to kind of make an impact on our team," Woodcroft said about the goaltender's performance. "I think he had at one point won nine games in a row for us. I think there are positive points to Jack's year, and the biggest positive is the way he conducted himself, the way he found a way to win games and contribute to a team that won 50 of them. I think him working through that little bit of adversity sets him up for a real big summer and will serve as his personal motivational fuel heading into next year."

"I've seen Soup firsthand go on runs and play out of his mind, so I personally know what he's capable of," Hyman said. "I've said it before, but it's tough when you transition to a new team. You get new environment and new surroundings and I think he's settling in. It's great to see him play great."

Skinner regained his mantle as the Oilers number-one goaltender down the stretch for and heading into the playoffs, yet Campbell won his final four starts of the regular season -- including his first shutout as an Oiler in an April 1 win over the Anaheim Ducks. The performance was a sign of things to come for the goaltender, who played a pivotal role at times in Edmonton's post-season run.

There was no moment more important than Campbell's Game 4 performance against the Los Angeles Kings. With the Oilers trailing in the series 2-1, the scrappy Kings squad jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead at home in the Crypto.com Arena. Oilers Head coach Jay Woodcroft made the goaltender change after the first intermission, replacing the rookie Skinner with Campbell for the remainder of the contest. The veteran was excellent the rest of the way, turning aside 27 of 28 shots in the Oilers 5-4 comeback victory in overtime, likely reversing his team's postseason fortunes.

"It's a different path, but you get there in the end," Campbell said of coming in as the backup. "It's a nice win, nice to get a shot, and I'm just happy for the guys. Stuey's been playing great when he's been in there. We had a tough first but everybody bounced back and it feels good."

"He made a couple of huge saves when he came in, and obviously he hadn't played in a little bit," Kane said of his netminder. "Coming in cold in the middle of a playoff game, down 3-0, can be tough, but he's a veteran guy. He's been around the league a long time and he has a lot of experience, and that provided him some help tonight."

"I've constantly touted that we have a good goaltending tandem," Woodcroft said following the victory. "I have belief in both of our goaltenders, and that's not assigning any blame on Stuart for the way the first period went, but I felt that our team needed a little bit of a change in momentum to give us a different kind of look."

Campbell would see action in three more of the Oilers postseason contests, finishing the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 1.01 goals against average and a .961 save percentage in almost two full games worth of action. The Oilers brass believes that there will be more sensational performances in the goaltenders future as he adjusts to life in Edmonton and is unburdened by the first year of his free agent frenzy status.

"First off, I think quite often, players that sign long-term big contracts, their biggest contract, feel a ton of pressure to live up to the contract and it puts a lot of stress on them," Oilers General Manager and President of Hockey Operations said after the season. "I know that there are other goalies in the National Hockey League this year that signed big deals a year ago, and year one was a tough go and year two turned out pretty good. I'm believing that year two is going to be pretty good."