Edmonton Oilers employing two intriguing strategies with Walman
Jake Walman has been as advertised through his first two games with the Edmonton Oilers.
The 29-year-old shined in his Oilers debut over the weekend, creating two goals with a few nifty breakout passes and showcasing his physicality by laying a devastating open-ice hit on Mikko Rantanen. His second game was a bit more subdued, but he continued to move the puck up the ice effectively.
It hasn’t been long, but the trade deadline acquisition has proven that he is among the team’s best puck-movers alongside Evan Bouchard. This is massive for an Oilers team that has been struggling to move the puck out of the defensive zone and onto the stick of their superstar forwards.
This allows the Oilers to employ a few unique strategies with Walman, one of which is ensuring that the team has at least one elite puck-moving defenceman on the ice for whenever Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are on the ice.
“That’s important,” Knoblauch said after the win over Dallas on Saturday. “It’s important to get the puck up and into those guys’ hands, especially when Leon and Connor are playing.
“We want to put them in a position so they can play to their strength. To do that, you need puck-moving defencemen, and obviously [Bouchard and Walman] are good at that… I think. It is good to have those two out there when [McDavid and Draisaitl] are out there.”
Jake Walman with a PERFECT flip pass to spring Zach Hyman on a breakaway. 🤩
Looking pretty good so far in his @EdmontonOilers debut…
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— NHL (@NHL) March 9, 2025
In his debut against the Dallas Stars, the Oilers employed this exact line of thinking with Bouchard playing on the top pair with Brett Kulak while Walman played second pair minutes with Darnell Nurse. Even though Walman is a natural LD, he looked completely at home playing on the right side.
For whatever reason, most likely due to Mattias Ekholm being unavailable, Knoblauch has moved away from this strategy since that game. Walman played LD alongside Bouchard in Monday’s loss to the Buffalo Sabres, and that seems to be staying the same for tomorrow’s game against the New Jersey Devils.
This is also an interesting strategy as it’s akin to loading up Draisaitl and McDavid on the same line at times. However, instead of pure star power, this is loading up the top pair with two of the team’s best puck-movers. Perhaps the idea is that a pair as adept at moving the puck up the ice as Walman-Bouchard won’t need as strong a defensive presence since they’ll be attacking far more than they defend.
Jake Walman lays a huge hit on Mikko Rantanen. 👀 pic.twitter.com/9QCKVzwQsT
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 9, 2025
It could also be a move that is preparing for the 34-year-old Ekholm to inevitably start to regress the older he gets. This allows Walman a premature audition for that spot when that eventually becomes a reality.
Either way, acquiring Walman has given Knoblauch a lot more flexibility when it comes to his defensive pairs. The idea of separating Walman and Bouchard into different pairings has its merits, but the experiment of keeping them together is also worthwhile.
Any way you cut it, adding Walman to this defensive group is a massive upgrade to their transition game, which was sorely lacking before the deadline.
Now we just have to wait for his first “griddy” with the Oilers.