Who Is the Oilers Consensus Breakout Player in 2024-25 Season?

The Edmonton Oilers will absolutely need defenseman Ty Emberson to step up during the 2024-25 season. This is not to say that he’s been bad. Quite the opposite. He’s been good, given his small sample size of games, all for the San Jose Sharks. Voted the breakout star for the Oilers by several insiders this season, Edmonton has put Emberson in a position where he’s got to be consistent in a new role alongside Darnell Nurse.

Emberson likely won’t get power play time. He’ll undoubtedly be asked to try the penalty kill, but they key will be his 5-v-5 play and being reliable defensively. Should he stay above water, this could be a massive season for him.

A few notable insiders wrote reviews and projections for his season, with one prediction Emberson could play around 71 games, score, eight goals, and add 14 assists (22 points.) These are comparable numbers of Cody Ceci, who the Oilers sent the other way in the Emberson trade.

What Early Projections for Emberson Look Like

Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff writes:

If you dig into the numbers, Emberson actually posted a strong rookie season with the Sharks in limited showing. Aside from the shots he’s averaged per game, Emberson makes a good first pass – which should be priority No. 1 for any Edmonton blueliner with the forwards on their roster. Emberson may not be a household name, but he played for Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch two seasons ago in AHL Hartford. This is a player Knoblauch knows and trusts. It’s a tall task to replace Cody Ceci and Philip Broberg in one shot, but Emberson is up to the task.

According to Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic:

“The Oilers are a Stanley Cup-contending team filled with established stars and players who’ve reached their ceilings. Options are limited. The obvious answer is Emberson because, well, it has to be. The Oilers revamped the right side of their defense behind Evan Bouchard in the offseason, moving on from Cody Ceci, Philip Broberg and Vincent Desharnais in the process. They’re now counting on Emberson, acquired from San Jose for Ceci, to play a pivotal position next to Darnell Nurse despite having just 30 games of NHL experience. Whether Emberson’s up for the challenge is a big question, but he’s the only person who fits the bill here.”

Oilers Have Little Choice But Emberson

As Nugent-Bowman points out, the Oilers have put themselves in a spot where Emberson needs to be good. The Oilers backup options are Troy Stecher, Josh Brown, and Connor Carrick, all of whom are bigger reaches than Emberson.

That’s a lot of pressure for a new arrival with a defenseman who hasn’t played a single pre-season game and is coming into the season with a bit of a nagging injury. Can Emberson do the job he’ll be asked to do? If not, the Oilers need to go grab another defenseman, potentially a name like Justin Schultz, Kevin Shattenkirk or Mark Giordano.

Our projections for Emberson: 18 minutes per game, five goals, 18 assists and he wins and keeps the second pair job this season.