Revamped Oilers Blueline Could Be Best In The League
Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard. (Jim Rassol-Imagn Images)A smart acquisition can completely change a team.
The Edmonton Oilers know this well. Two years ago, they transformed their blueline by trading for Mattias Ekholm at the deadline, giving Evan Bouchard a legitimate top-pair partner and shifting everyone else down the lineup. The Oilers' current reign as an elite team started with the Ekholm trade.
They might have just done it again by trading for Jake Walman at this year's deadline.
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Walman has looked like a perfect fit through his first two games in Edmonton, playing on all three pairs with Ekholm out of the lineup. When Ekholm returns, the Oilers' blueline will look something like this:
Mattias Ekholm-Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse-Jake Walman
Brett Kulak-Ty Emberson
Ekholm and Bouchard have been perhaps the best defense pair in the league over the past two seasons, leading the league in expected goals share at 62.8% last year and coming fifth at 58.8% this season. Behind them, Nurse and Kulak have garnered 57% of the expected goals in their 348 minutes together.
Walman has spent this season putting up excellent relative numbers in huge minutes on a terrible San Jose Sharks team (7.7% better than the rest of San Jose's defensemen), and can now either slide in next to a resurgent Nurse or kill easy minutes on the third pair.
Either works; Kulak and Ty Emberson have an xG share of 53% together, a very respectable number for a third pair. Wherever you put Walman, the Oilers suddenly have three defensive pairings that control possession and drive play with their ability to exit the zone cleanly and pitch in on offense.
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Put another way: by The Athletic's Net Rating, Edmonton has the second, third, seventh, 15th, 19th, and 30th-best defensemen in the Pacific Division. No other team has as many defenders in the top 10, 20, or 30 in the division, even including Vegas' stacked and vaunted blueline.
In fact, only the Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals can boast a blueline with the same combination of upside (Evan Bouchard's +18 rating in sixth-highest in the league) and depth (Emberson's -3 rating makes him one of the best sixth defensemen in the league). The Oilers are in a league of their own in the Western Conference.
It's often said that defense wins championships. Now, the Oilers have built a blueline that can go out and prove the old saying right.
*Expected goals figures courtesy of MoneyPuck.
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