EDMONTON — New year, new teammates.
The Edmonton Oilers made many changes during the short off-season. Familiar faces Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod, Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway are gone. Some additions are Jeff Skinner, Ty Emberson, Viktor Arvidsson and Vasily Podkolzin.
With fresh blood comes fresh line combinations. Today, the team’s first day of on-ice sessions has revealed some potential combinations.
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For the first group of players on the ice, there are two defense pairings that look like they could see NHL minutes. Brett Kulak and Josh Brown are paired together. The other combination is Darnell Nurse with Ty Emberson.
This combination shouldn’t surprise many people. Several pundits speculated that the Oilers would consider this pairing. The organization is willing to allow Emberson to prove his worth.
Emberson had good results on an inferior team in the San Jose Sharks. It stands to reason that he could perform even better on a significantly more talented team.
Regardless of expectations, the only way to truly know what someone is capable of is to put them in various situations to see how they perform. It looks like the Oilers are ready to do that.
Nurse earned 32 points in 81 games played in the 2023-24 season. He averaged 21:54 ice time per game and was primarily paired with Cody Ceci.
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Additionally, Emberson only played 30 games and produced 10 points. He played 18:33 per game for the Sharks.
As training camp progresses, it will become clearer if this is the direction the Oilers want to take. Time will tell.
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