Quoting: stephane_robidas
Not a great UFA goalie market, buddy - unless Kuemper comes to EDM which I don't think he will, respectively
Not many options, unless of course you WANT to roll with .896 sv% Mike Smith and feed Skinner to the wolves. Both EDM goalies got lit up 9-5 against the Flames and have been atrocious this year.
Some context, EDM's goaltending is, in terms of save percentage, .1% and .4% better than Samuel Montembeault - very comparable GAA too.
So, beggars can't be choosers. It literally cannot get any worse than this for Edmonton, year 7 of wasting the prime years of the two greatest players in the world.
Doubling down, huh?
Well, let's start with your first claim: a weak UFA goalie market. Perhaps that's a fair assertion but only if the option you're proposing doesn't involve spending assets to acquire an EVEN weaker goalie option. I can see at least 3 options on the UFA market that are demonstrably better than Bernier (Kuemper, Holtby, and Campbell) and then a whole bunch who are pretty much in the same league- a group that includes current Oilers goalie Koskinen. Without even mentioning likely-available RFAs like Georgiev, your argument is already flaccid.
It's funny that you'd draw the comparison of EDM's goalie stats to Montembault but completely omit the fact that Bernier's own sv% and GAA are pretty much directly in-line with Koskinen's. (.902 & 3.08 Vs .901 & 3.11). Since your stated argument only relies on those goalie stats, your own proposed solution doesn't even work using your own stated reasoning. Do you intend to make the case that "Bernier's numbers only suffer because NJ is bad defensively"? In that case, the same applies to EDM's goalies who have been hung out to dry regularly. Both teams have bluelines with a skew towards being offensively-focused and a tendency for making glaring mistakes.
I'll ignore the "beggars can't be choosers" argument because that's just a rhetorical tool you're defensively deploying to defend your poor proposal. But you ARE right; the team can't sit around and make decisions that waste another year of McDavid and Draisaitl. As such, your offer makes zero sense for the Oilers as acquiring Bernier at any cost (let alone a 2nd+) would be doing exactly that.
If your proposal involved taking back Smith's contract while STILL retaining cap on Bernier, then there might be more merit to it.