The Edmonton Oilers busy off-season doesn’t appear to be over, as Stan Bowman and the organization are reportedly examining the market for right-shot defencemen.
It comes days after the club dealt right-shot defenceman Cody Ceci and a draft pick to the San Jose Sharks for another right-shot rearguard in Ty Emberson, and after the club declined to match offer sheets for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway.
And according to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, those include potential reunions with Justin Schultz or Tyson Barrie.
Schultz, 34, signed with the Oilers in July 2012 after wrapping up an NCAA career at the University of Wisconsin. Once claimed to have “Norris Trophy potential,” Schultz never actualized close to that, but he’s carved out a 12-year, 745-game career in which he won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017, where he enjoyed the best years of his career.
He spent last season with the Seattle Kraken, scoring seven goals and 26 points in 70 games. Much like during his time with the Oilers he’s struggled in recent years. According to Hockey Viz, he drove offence at a seven percent rate below league average last year, and defence at a league average rate, culminating in him contributing at the rate of a low-end third-paring defenceman.
Barrie, 33, could rejoin the Oilers a year and a half after the organization traded him to the Nashville Predators in the Mattias Ekholm deal. Playing 41 games for them last year, scoring a goal and 14 points, he had one of his worst seasons of his career, driving offence at a 13 percent rate below league average and defence at a 15 percent rate below league average, according to Hockey Viz, who slotted his production equivalent to that of well below a third-pairing defenceman. The drop-off in play could be due to him falling out of favour in Nashville, seeing him request a trade from the team last December, which never came to fruition.
Seravalli also mentioned Kevin Shattenkirk, 35, as an option. He spent last year with the Boston Bruins, scoring six goals and 24 points in 61 games. He enjoyed a solid season there, driving offence at a league average rate and defence at a two percent rate below league average. His biggest contributions came on the power play, however, driving play at a 10 percent rate above league average, which landed him at the rate of a high-end second-pairing defenceman.
The Oilers had worked to stock the right-shot cupboard this summer, signing all of Josh Brown, Troy Stecher and Connor Carrick, and adding the aforementioned Emberson this week.
