The Edmonton Oilers are heading into next season with aspirations of winning the Stanley Cup, but they've still got one major concern.
According to Bob Stauffer on a recent edition of OilersNow, the team has some concerns with the right side of defence coming out of training camp.
The right side of the Oilers defence currently consists of Evan Bouchard, Ty Emberson, Josh Brown, and Troy Stecher. The concern obviously isn't with Bouchard, but the rest of the group is an inexperienced mishmash of journeymen.
Fans have high hopes for Ty Emberson, who the Oilers acquired in trade for Cody Ceci. The 24 year old defenceman has a history of success with Knoblauch in the AHL and has posted decent results in the NHL, but he's only played 30 games. Plenty of analysts believe that Emberson can be a quality player as soon as this year, and he's look good in the preseason too, but there's a level of uncertainty acquiring a player with just 30 games played.
Some significant concerns are emerging about Josh Brown, the 30 year old defenceman the Oilers signed to a three year contract for $3M. Brown has only played 290 NHL games himself, which is less than both Stecher and Dermott. Brown has posted poor results through his NHL career with the Arizona Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks, to the point where some fans see him more as an AHL quality player. To be frank, after seeing the players the Oilers signed to tryout contracts, the deal with Brown is looking more questionable as camp goes on and he struggles on the ice.
Troy Stecher is the most experienced NHL defenceman of the right shot defence group, and yet he's starting the year outside of the starting lineup. The 30 year old has played 494 career games, but the Oilers seem to want a bigger body on the bottom defence pairing, similar to Vincent Desharnais. Stecher doesn't fit that description at 5'10, and that will be an obstacle for him to get in the lineup.
So far none of these defenceman have made an overwhelming impression in training camp, potentially aside from Josh Brown's struggles. Through the season, the Oilers are going to need to target a top four defenceman in trade to upgrade their back end to be Stanley Cup Calibre.
