The Oilers announced on Sunday that they intend to call him up from his conditioning assignment with the Oklahoma City Barons. He went 1-1 during his stint there and stopped 25 of 26 shots Saturday against the Abbotsford Heat. He had a 3.03 GAA and a .880 save percentage.
He signed with the Oilers on Nov. 8 but needed conditioning since he had not been in the league since the Flyers bought him out and the only shots he faced was in training camp with the ECHL's Las Vegas Wranglers.
There's no word on whether he will start for the Oilers on Tuesday. Devan Dubnyk ended his losing streak by stopping 33 of 35 shots against the Flames on Saturday, so it's probable he could be getting the start.
If Bryzgalov does play, however, he will be facing Sergei Bobrovsky, his former teammate on the Flyers. The Flyers traded Bobrovsky to the Columbus Blue Jackets last season when they committed to Bryzgalov.
For Bryzgalov, this is definitely what he needs to get back into the NHL. He's been mainly out of the league all year and it'll be interesting to see how well he does against the Blue Jackets and Bobrovsky. I definitely think he's an upgrade over Dubnyk. Dubnyk's been having a terrible year so far and his defense has been one of the reasons. But the other reason is that they don't have elite goaltending to help them. I would've expected teams like the Anaheim Ducks, who have too many goalies, to trade one of their goalies to Edmonton, but the Oilers didn't want to wait for that to happen, so they napped Bryzgalov. I hope he can save the Oilers and bring them back up into the Western Conference, because right now, they're in the gutters and they're starting to get too far behind because of the surges by the Kings, Stars, Ducks, and Sharks.
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