Another shoe has dropped ahead as the Edmonton Oilers continue to navigate the St. Louis Blues’ aggressive offer sheets for Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg.
Hours after announcing the club acquired winger Vasily Podkolzin from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2025 fourth-round pick, the Oilers have announced they have dealt defenceman Cody Ceci and a 2025 third-round pick to the San Jose Sharks for defenceman Ty Emberson.
Ceci, 30, has spent the last three seasons with the Oilers after signing as a free agent in the summer of 2021, appearing in 237 regular season games, scoring 11 goals and 68 points. He drew in for 52 playoff games with the club, adding another three goals — two of which in Game 7’s — and 13 points.
While Ceci had a great first season with the team, each of his second and third years saw struggles in his game come out. He would put together solid regular seasons, but in the playoffs, things fell apart. Among 43 defencemen who played over 300 minutes between the last two post-seasons, only four had a worse 5v5 goal share than his 39.5 percent.
Emberson, 24, was drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the third round of the 2018 draft, but didn’t make his NHL debut until this season with the Sharks. He appeared in 30 games, scoring one goal and 10 points. After being drafted, he attended the University of Wisconsin for three years, wearing the ‘C’ in his final year in 2020-21, scoring four goals and 19 points in 31 games. He turned pro at the end of that season, getting his first stint in the American Hockey League.
He spent the 2022-23 season with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack under then-head coach Kris Knoblauch, scoring seven goals and 27 points in 69 games, where he was named the Eastern Conference shutdown defenceman of the year.
Emberson, who shoots right, carried that over to the NHL, as according to hockeyviz.com, he provided even-strength defence at a staggering 12 percent rate above league average. There wasn’t any offence there, driving play there at a 14 percent rate below league average, but he did kill penalties at a four percent rate above league average.
While the Oilers are picking up a strong stay-at-home defenceman, they’re also getting out of some salary cap issues. Ceci carried a $3.25-million cap hit heading into this season, the final one of his deal, while Emberson had signed a one-year, $950,000 deal with the Sharks this offseason. He will be a Group 6 unrestricted free agent after this season, should conditions be met.
