In 2017, Calvin Pickard was known as the prototypical journeyman goaltender who was traded by the Vegas Golden Knights without ever playing a game for them as their first expansion draft pick.

By 2022-23, after playing games for five different NHL teams in his career, his only playing time in North America was in the AHL. Last season, he returned to the NHL after the Edmonton Oilers sent Jack Campbell to the AHL.

But in 2025, he became the goalie called upon to help the Oilers avoid a 0-3 deficit to the Los Angeles Kings and punch their ticket to a second-round series against the Golden Knights.

Pickard wasn’t supposed to have to step up in net for Edmonton midway through a series for the second straight year. But after Stuart Skinner allowed 11 goals in the first two games, Pickard got the call.

Pickard is the only goalie currently in the NHL with a 4-0-0 record this post-season, and in Game 5 against the Kings, he had a 22-save performance to go along with a .955 save percentage. In Game 6, while it was a rollercoaster of a game, Pickard made big saves on breakaways and odd-man rushes when familiar faces, such as former Oiler Warren Foegele, were bearing down on him.

Getting through adversity has been a calling card of Pickard, and it rallied this Oilers roster, said teammate Connor Brown. 

“Overcoming things like that help you in these big moments,” Brown said. “That’s why (Pickard) is able to come in and give us such solid performances night after night. He’s overcome so much in his career.”

Avry Lewis-McDougall has more in his latest video column.

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