JONES: Could Minnesota’s Stalock be the second coming of Roloson for Oilers?
Stalock #Stalock
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My instincts are telling me there’s going to be a good story to follow here, so let’s begin to follow it now
Author of the article:
Terry Jones 
Edmonton Oilers forward Kailer Yamamoto (56) deflects a shot against Minnesota Wild goaltender Alex Stalock (32) at Rogers Place on Feb 21, 2020. Photo by Perry Nelson /USA Today Sports, file Article content
It would be a bit much to expect a total rewrite of ‘The Dwayne Roloson Story.’
But there are some interesting compatibles involved in whatever tale Alex Stalock is about to write as he emerges from his 14-day quarantine and joins the Edmonton Oilers, Thursday. The last time the team obtained a goaltender from Minnesota, it was March 8, 2006, and his name was D. Roloson.
Rollie The Goalie wrote one of the great stretch run and playoff stories in NHL history that spring, first leading the Oilers to claim a playoff position and then leading the eighth-seeded team in the Western Conference all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.
If Roloson hadn’t suffered the knee injury in Game 1 of the final that went to Game 7, Edmonton might have won a sixth Stanley Cup that year.
Born in St. Paul, Minn., Stalock was a fourth-round pick (112th overall) in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. So, he remembers Roloson and the Oilers’ run very well
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“I watched Rollie as a kid. Growing up there, I went to a lot of Wild games. It’s really similar,” Stalock observed.
Head coach Dave Tippett isn’t projecting an immediate insertion of Stalock into the Oilers line-up.
“He’s still about a week away. He has to get some practice in. He’s missed a lot of time. He might be able to get around our team as of (Thursday) but he still needs some time to get up and running here.”
Tippett says he’ll likely join the team for the three games in Montreal and two in Toronto. But don’t expect to see No. 32 in net until April.
My instincts are telling me there’s going to be a good story to follow here, so let’s begin to follow it now.
With a career record of 61-49-18, a goals-against average of 2.61 and a save percentage of .909. the career numbers of the 5-foot-11, 33-year-old compare favourably with Mikko Koskinen’s (53-45-9, 2.96 GAA, .908 SP).
Stalock spent the first five years of his NHL career with the San Jose Sharks organization before he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016. Acquired by Minnesota, Stalock was 20-11-4, 2.67 GAA, .910 SP last season. He started 38 games and recorded four shutouts. He also started all four Wild qualifying series Stanley Cup playoff games in Edmonton’s Hub City bubble.
Coming off what was termed an off-season injury, Stalock hadn’t played a game this year and found himself behind rookie sensation Kaapo Kahkonen (12-4-0, 2.05 GAA, .927 SP), backed up by ex-Oilers starter Cam Talbot.
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In an interview with your correspondent Wednesday upon emerging from quarantine after getting his first tour of the Oilers dressing room and taking his first skate on Roger’s Place ice since he was here in the playoffs, Stalock wanted to set the record straight about his ‘injury.’
He was never injured.
“Unfortunately, it was COVID related,” he revealed. “I had two negative tests. We did heart tests and found a condition that they’ve found in some athletes called myocarditis. I got shut down for six weeks. I wasn’t allowed to do any physical activity that might get my heart rate up. I had an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging scan) in mid-January and got the good news that the swelling of the heart was not only down but gone. I was cleared to come back.
“I was on the ice twice with the taxi squad and then we had a meeting with the coaches and the training staff and decided the best plan would be to go down to the AHL (American Hockey League) for a conditioning stint. To do that, they had to put me on waivers.”He’d barely been informed that he’d been claimed by Edmonton when Stalock had his car packed and pointed west through the Dakotas and Montana.
“It made the most sense for me to drive and speed up the quarantine process. I managed to get to Montana and get a hotel room and drove up through Couts first thing the next morning,” he said. “As I started driving, I could really feel the excitement. It’s a new chance. It’s a new chapter.
“I really like the team they have here. They have a chance to make a run. That’s the most exciting part. I’m going to a team that’s going to win hockey games.
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“Obviously, to get claimed by a team, they saw something and I want to come in a work hard and do whatever I can do to push people and help make the team better while I work on my No. 1 goal of getting prepared to play in the NHL again.”
He’s on the second year of a three-year, $785,000-a-year contract, while Mikko Koskinen has a year remaining at $4.5 million and has buyout written all over him.
It’s interesting how general manager Ken Holland’s major mess in goal seems to have dramatically improved with Smith recovering from injury to start the season and going into Wednesday’s game in Calgary, the arrival at last of Stalock on the ice and what local product Stuart Skinner has made of his season after getting one start (a win) backing up Koskinen to begin the season.
In his last nine starts with the Oilers’ AHL farm club in Bakersfield, he has a 9-0-0 record with his 1.33 goals-against average and .948 save percentage.
There are up arrows at the position now.
E-mail: tjones@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @byterryjones
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