Oilers sign defenceman Ryan Shea to five-year contract

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound left-shot defenceman was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in the fourth round of the 2015 draft by current Oilers general manager Stan Bowman. He didn’t play his first NHL game until the 2023-24 season, after signing as a free agent with the Penguins, and has appeared in 150 NHL games since, scoring nine goals and 41 points.

With Shea on the ice at five-on-five last season, where he averaged 15 minutes and 54 seconds per game, the Penguins controlled 49.1 per cent of the shot attempt share, 58.3 per cent of the goal share and 51.2 per cent of the expected goal share. Shea himself drove offence at a league average rate, defence at a one per cent rate below league average, and penalty kill play at a two per cent rate above league average, according to HockeyViz, who pegged his overall contributions at the rate of an average second-pairing defenceman.

AFP Analytics projected Shea to sign a four-year contract carrying a $4.367 million cap hit.

Shea had a long path to breaking into the NHL, spending four years at the NCAA’s Northeastern University, where between 2016 and 2020 he appeared in 149 games, scoring 10 goals and 78 points. He was a captain in his final season. He spent three seasons in the AHL with the Texas Stars, the Dallas Stars’ AHL affiliate.

The Oilers were busy Wednesday, acquiring goaltender Devon Levi from the Buffalo Sabres for a draft pick, and trading Darnell Nurse to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for defenceman Shakir Mukhamadullin and prospect Zack Sharp.