Oilers To Acquire Connor Murphy

More notably, he worked his way back to full health for the 2022-23 season. By then, Murphy had emerged as one of only a few veterans on a rebuilding Blackhawks defense. That standing pushed him up into tough, top-four minutes often in relief of Blackawks’ top defender Seth Jones. In the heavy role, Murphy racked up 13 points and 69 penalty minutes in 80 games of the 2022-23 campaign. Injuries and scratches came back to bite him over the last three seasons, pulling Murphy back into the swing of routine absences. He tied his career-high 19 points in 68 games last season but has so far only totaled 13 points in 60 games this season.

While luck hasn’t been on his side in Chicago, Murphy has shown an ability to once again stick in the lineup through much of this season. He has returned to a defensive-defenseman’s role, operating from the bottom pair but routinely tapped to play more than 20 minutes against strong offenses.

Murphy will bring a robust, defensive ability to a high-octane Edmonton blue-line. The Oilers found a cohesive top-pairing in Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard but haven’t yet found the right match for Darnell Nurse, who has spent significant time with six different D partners this season. Murphy could become the seventh man to stand by Nurse, bringing a bit more veteran certainty than previous partners like Spencer Stastney or Ty Emberson. That pairing could move Emberson back to a bottom-pair role and free up Jake Walman to rotate throughout the lineup.

That flexibility will be welcome as Edmonton eyes another long postseason run. Murphy has only appeared in the Stanley Cup Playoffs once in his 13-year career – when he played nine games and scored four assists in the 2020 postseason. He should be headed for his second playoff bid now with the Oilers, and could prove to be an X-factor addition should his defensive focus free up Nurse, or Walman, to drive the offense a bit more.