It was announced on Monday that the Edmonton Oilers officially acquired defenceman Connor Murphy from the Chicago Blackhawks. Edmonton sent a second-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft, while Chicago retained half of Murphy’s salary to help complete the deal.
Murphy is an NHL veteran with 13 seasons of experience. He will slot in on one of the Oilers’ bottom defensive pairings and will likely be part of the penalty kill. This is the first time that Murphy has ever been on a Stanley Cup contending team.
Let’s take a look at what the newest Edmonton Oiler has to offer.
Murphy’s recent statistics
| GP | G | A | P | HITS | BLKS | |
| 2022-2023 | 80 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 165 | 160 |
| 2023-2024 | 46 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 116 | 113 |
| 2024-2025 | 68 | 2 | 17 | 19 | 117 | 160 |
| 2025-2026 | 60 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 62 | 87 |
Murphy is certainly no offensive defenceman. He is a defence-first kind of player, which is exactly what the Oilers need. Murphy will help solidify the bottom pairings before the playoffs. It is likely that Murphy will slot in on either the second or third pairing to start in Edmonton. One of Ty Emberson or Spencer Stastney will be the odd man out of the lineup. With one of those two coming out, Murphy will get a chance to play on the Oilers second penalty kill unit. Looking at his basic stats, Murphy will be a good defenceman to help block shots and bring some physicality to the lineup.
To this point in his career, Murphy has only played for two other teams. He spent four seasons with the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes, then was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in the summer of 2017. Chicago acquired Murphy alongside Laurent Dauphin in exchange for Niklas Hjalmarsson. Since 2017, Murphy had been a member of the Blackhawks for parts of nine seasons. He was a solid depth defenceman for many years.
Now, a new chapter begins with the Oilers. These will be the most important hockey games that Murphy has played in his entire life. He joins an Edmonton team that is desperate for a Stanley Cup victory. Oiler fans will have to wait for his debut as the defenceman did not play in Tuesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators. He will likely suit up on Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Murphy’s career achievements
Murphy had a fair amount of accomplishments in hockey at a young age. To begin his major junior hockey career, Murphy was a first-round pick in the 2011 NHL Draft. The Coyotes drafted him with the 20th selection. Afterwards, he played a couple of seasons with the Sarnia Sting in the OHL and made Team USA’s World Junior roster in the 2013 tournament. Murphy played alongside some great USA talent in Johnny Gaudreau, Vincent Trocheck, and John Gibson. This team won gold by defeating Team Sweden in the championship game.
Early on in his career, Murphy continued to represent Team USA at the Men’s World Championships. He appeared in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. He was an alternate captain in 2016 and 2018 and was lucky enough to be the captain for 2017. The best offensive tournament he had was in 2016, when he scored three goals and five points through ten games. Through those five tournament appearances, Murphy won two bronze medals, bringing home some hardware to go with his World Junior gold.
Outside of this, Murphy has not had much winning success at the NHL level. The defenceman got his first taste of playoff hockey in the 2020 NHL bubble Stanley Cup Playoffs. Murphy and the Blackhawks took down the Oilers in the play-in round and advanced to the regular first round. Here, they lost to a strong Vegas Golden Knights team in five games. Through nine career playoff games, Murphy has posted four assists.
Looking at the trade
The trade was simple for both the Oilers and the Blackhawks. It was a one-for-one deal that included Murphy and a 2028 second-round pick. The sweetener in the deal for the Oilers was the fact that Chicago retained fifty percent of Murphy’s salary. This helped the Oilers afford him, as they are always too tight on cap space. The fact that Murphy was cheap also gives the Oilers some room to make more moves with their other assets.
Murphy is a UFA after this season, so he may only be an Oiler for the remainder of this season and playoffs. If the Oilers wish to re-sign him, it will probably cost more than the $2.2M average he is getting now (the other $2.2M is being paid by Chicago). The Oilers will likely move on from Adam Henrique, one of Curtis Lazar and Kasperi Kapanen, or potentially even Jack Roslovic. If any of these were to happen, especially Henrique, then re-signing Murphy would definitely be an option.
I was not surprised that the Oilers attempted to bring in a depth forward at the trade deadline. Murphy was their defensive acquisition, while Tristan Jarry was the goaltending acquisition earlier in the season. All that remained was acquiring a solid depth forward to help solidify the lineup going into the playoffs. Elliotte Friedman recently reported that the Oilers acquired Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach from the Blackhawks. Both could be great third and fourth-line additions moving forward.
Do you think the additions of Murphy, Dickinson, and Dach could help the Oilers bring home the Stanley Cup?
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