EDMONTON — We’ve learned a few things about goaltending here in Edmonton, ironically, through years of observing a series of general managers careen ham-handedly through the market.

The first lesson is, if your plan is to wait around until an established franchise goaltender like Ilya Sorokin, Juuse Saros, Sergei Bobrovsky or Andrei Vasilevskiy shakes free, your window will pass before you get your man.

You want the next good-to-great goalie? You’ve got to identify a Miikka Kiprusoff, a Tuukka Rask, a Dan Vladar. Snap up someone else’s depth goalie and be right on them. Edmonton tried that once with Cam Talbot, a nice try but ultimately not nice enough.

The second is, the more pressure that is applied on the GM to “GET A GOALIE!” the more likely it is he’ll bring home some magic beans. See: Ken Holland and Jack Campbell, or Stan Bowman and Tristan Jarry.

Third, the defensive environment in front of the goalie is perhaps more important than the goalie himself. That’s how Adin Hill and Antti Niemi win Stanley Cups, and Stuart Skinner — who outplayed some pretty good goalies along the way — does not.

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