What Edmonton Oilers defensive pairs could look like after Murphy trade
The Edmonton Oilers’ blue line is going to look a little bit different.
GM Stan Bowman made his first splash of the 2026 trade deadline on Monday, acquiring defenceman Connor Murphy from the Chicago Blackhawks. The 32-year-old right-shot defender is expected to slot into the Oilers’ top-four, meaning some big changes could be coming to the defensive pairs.
Head coach Kris Knoblauch was running some different-looking pairs during Monday’s practice, before news of the trade broke. All three duos were swapped around, and it looked like this:
Jake Walman – Evan Bouchard
Mattias Ekholm – Spencer Stastney
Darnell Nurse- Ty EmbersonĀ
At the time, it appeared to be Knoblauch trying out something new in an attempt to get Edmonton’s defensive game back on track. In light of the trade, it could have been a hint about what the team is planning to run once Murphy joins the team.
The addition of another right-handed defenceman will mean that at least one of those defencemen will find themselves bumped out of the top-six. Evan Bouchard and Ty Emberson appear to be safe as the only natural right-shot D in that group.
It’d also make sense to swap Jake Walman to his natural left-hand side after having drawn poor results on his offside this season. Veterans Mattias Ekholm and Darnell Nurse are unlikely to draw out of the lineup as well.
That leaves the left-handed Spencer Stastney as the odd man out, and his spot in practice may indicate that he was acting as Murphy’s placeholder. The 26-year-old hasn’t played awfully since being acquired in December, but he also hasn’t made a strong case to stay in the lineup.
If this winds up being true, the Oilers’ defensive group could look a little something like this:
Walman – BouchardĀ
Ekholm – Murphy
Nurse – EmbersonĀ
Pairing Murphy with Ekholm would give the Oilers a solid stay-at-home second pairing and allow the offensive minds of Walman and Bouchard to take over the top pair. Meanwhile, Nurse’s poor play has likely earned him a demotion to the third pair, where he will play alongside Emberson.
That opens up some interesting possibilities, as the team could always swap Walman and Ekholm to give things a bit of a different look from time to time. They could even try Nurse alongside Murphy to see if there is any chemistry to be had.
It’s a solid trade for the Oilers, and one that will give the coaching staff a lot of options moving forward. We’ll see how Knoblauch decides to line things up in the coming days.