How does Connor Murphy acquisition help Oilers?

A little bit of defensive depth is something the Edmonton Oilers needed, and they addressed it on Monday.

The Oilers acquired defenseman Connor Murphy from the Chicago Blackhawks. Edmonton gave up a second-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft. The big, right-shot blueliner will certainly add a little bit of depth, as well as help out on the special teams.

However, that shouldn’t be the only move the Oilers make prior to the NHL Trade Deadline. The team has the core to make another run to the Stanley Cup Final, but they might need a few more pieces to make that a reality.

On Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Jeff Marek of The Sheet joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to discuss why the Murphy trade works for Edmonton, and what the team could do in the coming days.

Jeff Marek: The thing that jumped out at me right away when I saw the deal was: help the PK. Like right away, like the Oilers’ penalty kill needs some help. Connor Murphy was a big part of the Chicago Blackhawks’ PK, and that’s a good penalty kill. So, right away, I see that’s where that helps.

I can see Edmonton both just picking around the edges and then also doing something massive. This time of year, you’ve got to really be careful about how you interpret things and what you think about what you see. … I’m really starting to wonder now if they end up doing something really big. … As Friday approaches now, I’m really getting warmer to the idea that the team we all might be talking about by the time the deadline rolls around on Friday are the Edmonton Oilers. Maybe it’s that blockbuster that no one sees coming, or maybe it’s someone, like, again, this isn’t a report, this is just like conversation meeting up the deadline on Tuesday…do they look at doing something with Darnell Nurse? 

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…