Former Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen has reportedly retired from hockey

Koskinen, who spent the last two seasons with HC Lugano of the Swiss National League, played four seasons in Edmonton donning the Blue and Orange. He was selected in the second round of the 2009 NHL Draft by the Islanders, but he only appeared in four games on Long Island during the 2010-11 season before returning to Europe.

He spent the next seven years of his career playing well in both the Finnish Ligua and the KHL, including capturing two Gagarin Cups with SKA St. Petersburg. Koskinen played in 184 career KHL games, where he posted a record of 101-58-15, a .926 SV%, a 1.99 GAA, and 18 shutouts. He was even better in the playoffs, going 50-24-4, posting a .938 SV%, a 1.64 GAA, and 14 shutouts.

So when he originally signed a one-year contract back in 2018, Koskinen arrived with some fanfare given all that he had accomplished in Russia and could finally be the starting goalie the Oilers were looking for. Unfortunately for both parties, the move never really worked out the way anyone had hoped.

He decently in his first season and was able to take over the starting role from Cam Talbot, but it was not enough to get the Oilers into the playoffs. Koskinen got himself a controversial three-year extension in late January of that year despite not having a lengthy track record in the NHL, which proved to be a defining moment for Peter Chiarelli’s tenure and was one of the factors in his eventual dismissal.

Koskinen went on to spend the next three seasons competing for the starting role with Mike Smith and was never able to quite snag it away from him. This was especially the case in the latter half of his stint with the Oilers as his numbers across the board began to diminish and never went back to league average in that time. Things came to a head during the 2021-22 season when then-coach Dave Tippett threw the Finnish goalie under the bus after a loss to the Rangers.

That, combined with Smith’s strong showing in that year’s playoffs and the emergence of Stuart Skinner, led to his eventual exit from the organization in the summer of 2022. Although his tenure in Edmonton did not exactly go according to plan given some of the stinkers he gave up, he did provide some highlight reel saves as well.

In total, Koskinen appeared in 164 games with the Oilers where he had a record of 83-59-13, a .907 SV%, a 2.98 GAA, and six shutouts.

Stats from Hockey-Reference.com and Natural Stat Trick.