On Friday night, a rumor that the Edmonton Oilers had acquired Tristan Jarry from the Pittsburgh Penguins took on a life of its own. A social media account that has a tendency try and "break news", and an account with a less-than-stellar track record for actually doing so, tweeted the following: 

"We are hearing that Tristan Jarry is being traded to the Edmonton Oilers & the Penguins will retain 50% of his salary. Working on more information on the full trade. "

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As one would imagine, the report spread, and today, the unconfirmed post has just shy of 700K views and nearly 300 comments. 

Slowing the momentum of the snowball that was building on a crisp Edmonton winter day, TSN's Ryan Rishaug reported on Saturday morning, "No goaltending deals done for the Oilers despite some wild speculation otherwise. Things can always change, but that’s the state of it as of Friday night/Saturday morning."

I also did some digging, touching base with sources I know in Edmonton and a couple in Pittsburgh, and no one is aware of any deal having been tabled or near completion. 

Does that mean a trade is out of the question? Or course not. Does that mean a deal is set to be announced? It doesn't appear that way. 

A Lot Of Ts To Cross and Is To Dot

Whether the Penguins got word of the report and felt the need to post something, or it was just a coincidence, the team's PR department published a glowing post about Jarry, suggesting that the Penguins would have no reason to make this trade and give up on the goaltender. 

They wrote, "It's been a great start to the year for Tristan Jarry. Wins in nine of 11 starts (9-2-0), 2.61 goals-against average, .913 save percentage (8th in NHL, min. 10 GP)." They add, "Jarry against teams that currently occupy a playoff spot? He's gone 4-1-0 with a .923 SV%."

Does this sound like a player the team is looking to dump? 

The post suggested the Penguins were going to retain 50% of Jarry's salary. That would mean either Stuart Skinner was going back to make it a salary wash, or Calvin Pickard was going the other way, with another move coming from the Oilers. 

The math doesn't math if Edmonton doesn't shed salary, potentially someone like Brett Kulak or Adam Henrique. 

The confirmation I got was that the Oilers are very leery of trading for a player with a history of injuries. Jarry might be having a solid season, but he's one season removed from some time in the AHL, and during the 2022–23 season, Jarry was injured in the Penguins’ outdoor game in Boston on Jan. 2. He bounced in and out of the lineup for months with an undisclosed lower-body issue. “It’s tough,” Jarry said in November of 2025. “That injury came from a lot of things… it was hard to manage.”

What To Expect from the Oilers?

The most likely scenerio is that Edmonton plays out this current homestand, trying to move up the standings as much as possible in a tight Pacific Division race. If the team fares well and the goaltending holds up, these Jarry rumors may quiet down. 

If the Oilers leak goals against, the goalie rumors will persist, potentially getting louder and making reports like the Jarry one all that much more believable. 

Much of this seemed to stem from a long hug that Skinner gave to Pickard after the win on Thursday night. Somehow, that ballooned into a narrative that the two goalies were saying goodbye, as though a trade was going to happen before either got back to the locker room. 

It was a laughable theory that one goalie embracing the other was somehow an indication that one of the two Oilers goalies was on the way out. Both goalies were on the ice today at practice. Both will be in the lineup Saturday night with Skinner set to start. 

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