My last article talked about how the Oilers improved at the goaltending position via the great acquisitions of Frederik Andersen and Devon Levi, but is the d core in front of them up to snuff? Well I must say, I`m again very pleased by the work Stan Bowman has done in this regard. He completed the much needed trade of Darnell Nurse for defensemen Shakir Mukhamadullin, and Zachary Sharp. Furthermore, he re-signed Connor Murphy to a five year 20,500,000 deal and acquired Ryan Shea via free agency with another five year deal at 20,00, 000. I must say, I’m very happy with all of these moves and I’ll break it down below.
Farewell Darnell
I won't dwell on this too much, as it's all been said before, but after the season was over, the writing was on the wall that Nurse needed to go. He requested a trade and from the outside, made it easy for management to move him. What`s great about this trade is no salary retained and picking up Shakir Mukhamadullin. Good job by Bowman here.
I’m sad to see him go because he was a warrior out there and was important in both of the Oilers cup runs. Say what you will about him, but he NEVER took a shift off. The mistakes happened but the effort was ALWAYS there.
The tragedy of Nurse was that the Oilers had no identity and he was one of the players mostly affected by this. He could do a bit of everything out there, but the thing is it was not necessary, and the organization did little to guide him in this respect. Had the defensive system been there, I really think Nurse would have thrived. Ok, maybe I did dwell on this too much.
Shakir Mukhamadullin the man without a face
Now I won't sit here and pretend I know a lot about this player. What I do know from doing some research is that he’s a 20th overall pick, he’s 6 '4, 24, shoots left, skates very well for a guy his size and is a defensively minded player who uses his reach well and is excellent at retrieving pucks deep in his own end. This is exactly what the Oilers need and he should fit right into the bottom pair, if not the second pair. Great, great pick up here.
Double the Connor, double the fun
Connor Murphy and Stan Bowman were able to reach an agreement on a 5 year deal with an average of 4.1 per. This is a great deal as Murphy played some solid hockey for the Oilers. He’s another big boy at 6’4 and plays a smart, hard nosed defensive game. Again, this is what the Oilers need, simplicity on the back end to keep the puck out of the net.
Ryan Shea Eh?
During free agency, Stan Bowman made another solid addition with the signing of Ryan Shea. He’s a 6’1, left shot, 29 year old defenseman who excels at playing a defensive game. He can skate well and like the other two, is great with his stick, making a simple first pass out of the zone, and is solid on the pk. Simplicity is the theme here and I love it as the last few seasons have been painful to watch on the back end.
Going forward this is what the lineup should ideally look like.
Ekholm-Bouchard
Walman-Murphy
Shea-Emberson/ Mukhamadullin
I’m a big fan of defensemen playing their natural side, but it’s doable for the bottom pair. At no point should Walman ever play on the right side. He needs to be on the left to be at his best and hopefully he's at 100% health. So I really think Bowman did a great job at addressing what the Oilers need on the back end: positionally sound, simple first pass and sticks in the passing lanes. With the upgrade at goaltending, I truly think the Oilers are going to be a much tougher team to play against in the 2026-2027 season.