New Oilers defenceman Emberson a sneaky good trade pickup
The Edmonton Oilers have somehow found a way to pull off a successful cap dump while receiving a promising young player in return.
Oilers GM Stan Bowman shipped defenceman Cody Ceci off to the San Jose Sharks last night, offloading $3.25 million in cap space while also getting back 24-year-old defenceman Ty Emberson in return.
On the surface, that may not be a name many Oilers fans are familiar with, but a closer look at Emberson shows that there is a lot to like about his play. He may be the most valuable piece in the entire trade, which is surprising considering the Oilers were the team with their backs against the wall, not the Sharks.
This is a savvy pickup… could be the front runner to play 3RD next season#Oilers https://t.co/rG2Cr6qmm6
— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) August 19, 2024
Emberson made his NHL debut with San Jose last season, appearing in 30 games and notching a goal and 10 points in that span. Offensively, there is not much to say about Emberson, but his real value comes with his play in the defensive zone.
In his rookie season, the Wisconsin native primarily played with San Jose’s Mario Ferraro in a top-four role.
Despite being a rookie and playing in the top four on the NHL’s worst team, Emberson managed to go just -4 in the 30 games he played. That may not seem impressive, but the Sharks averaged about four goals-against per game last season.
The fact that Emberson kept his +/- so low with an average five-on-five TOI of 16:37 per game is pretty impressive. In contrast, the next closest Sharks defenceman (who appeared in over 20 games last season) would be Jacob McDonald, who posted a -14 in 34 games.
Advanced stats seem to paint a similar picture of an under-the-radar defensive defenceman who may benefit greatly by playing on a much better team like the Oilers. According to Natural Stat Trick (NST), at five-on-five Emberson led all regular Sharks defencemen with a 44.44 goals-for-percentage (GF%) and was the only San Jose defenceman all season to break 50% in high-danger goals-for percentage (HDGF%) with an even ration of 8-8.
These aren’t gaudy numbers by any means but they are encouraging if you take in the situation that he was in for most of last season. It’s a great gamble for a young player who carries just a $950,000 cap hit.
Cap dumps are usually accompanied by the team dumping salary adding various sweeteners and getting nothing of value back in return. The fact that Edmonton was able to get out of the last year of Ceci’s contract AND get back a player who could reasonably crack the opening night roster on the team’s third pair is very tidy work.