Edmonton is a hockey bank, sometimes eat it young.
But from time to time you run through Connor IngremA player who rises by the hand and finds a person returning. Or more than one.
“People go through things in life,” he began Edmonton Oilers General Director Stan Bowman, who acquired an INGRAM from UTAH MAMMMOTH on Wednesday, “and part of this is to support him and return it.
“When I was talking to him, I just said:“ Hey, we are here. We believe in you. We are here to return you and return our career again. ” And he was very grateful that he had heard this. “
This is a story about a loved one described by a former writer as a “wonderful soul”-whose mental health and lifestyle position him to leave his game, which always moves forward to the next brilliant new perspective.
Back in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the obsessive-compulsive Ingrem (OCD) disorder (OCD) is so grueling that it led him to the NHL/NHLPA players program. Ingram does not expect that when the liba will completely leave this OKR behind, but thanks to his stay in the program, he can cope with this now.
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“It is like a real injury,” he said to Amali Benjamin from NHL.com in January 2024. – If you do not take care of it, it will deteriorate. For the rest of my life, I have been sitting in a stranger’s chair and tell them my problems once a week. This is just the fact of my life. ”
We will move to future autumn, when Ingram in the last year of his contract with the mammoth of Uta, but not in their camp and somewhat alienated from the organization. Utah General Manager Bill Armstrong put Inrama for refusal, and 31 other teams took a pass.
Bowman could not afford to claim Ingram and his entire salary of $ 1.95 million. But in case the department of the goalkeeper of the oil industry was deeply immersed in the player, and their conclusions represented what Bowman now calls “an interesting opportunity”.
Like everyone in hockey, Armstrong knew that Bowman was looking for the depth of the goalkeeper. Thus, he concluded the Edmonton deal: the mammoth will retain $ 800,000 for the salary of Ingram, leaving it for $ 1.15 million – exactly the number that can be buried in minors, having no salary on the caps of the NHL team.
He became a free player, with a lot of growth. There are no assets returning to Uta in the transaction.
“At this moment, this slightly changed the calculus for us, in a positive sense. There really was no shortage of this situation, ”Bowman said.
At the end of Bowman, he talked with the former team of INGRAM's team in Nashville.
“Matthias Ekholm said that he was a great guy, and if we make him leave, he is the guy who could be light,” Bowman said. “Everyone needs support at one time or another. Right now he is just excited to get a new beginning. ”
Add to the fact that Ingram is from the imperial, Sask., A tiny agricultural city from which the head coach of Oil Kris Knoblah appears – two men do not know each other, but their families – friends at home – and you have the beginning of a good history of human interest.
In 2023-24 Ingram began 48 games for the hot beds of Arizona. For the 27th best NHL team, he published 0.907 percent of the conservation and 2.91 goals on average. This is the pinnacle of the hockey career of Ingrem, according to statistics.
“When he is in his best manifestations – and this is how I always like to look at the players when they are at the top of his game – Connor is a very good goalkeeper,” Bowman appreciated. “So, now we must try to return it to this level.”
For three seasons, starting 48 or more starts, Oilers No. 1 Stuart Skinner published a percentage of conservation of 0.914, 0.905 and 0.896 – an average of 0.906 – behind the highest team. If Ingrem can restore this form at the age of 28, Oilers will have two goalkeepers with approximately similar abilities – mainly updating the current backup Calvin Picard.
But this conversation is still in the future, when Ingram begins a long way back, becoming a goalkeeper, who can first count on the AHL coach, and then in the NHL.
“He is going to go to Bakersfield, he will go, and then from that moment, I believe, this is the expectation approach and see,” Bowman said. “It can be (in Bakersfield) during the season. We don't know. There are no promises. We just want to return it by playing hockey, so he is in his best manifestations, and then gives us many options. ”
After the barren summer in the goalkeeper’s market, Bowman decided to raise his goalkeeper from the back, instead of concluding a blockbuster transaction for the goalkeeper, who will pass through the door as No. 1 in Edmonton.
If the last option is not available, then the first becomes a necessary step.
“You should have options,” said Bowman, “and I feel that it puts us in a much better position today compared to the depth of the goalkeeper than we were yesterday.”
