Edmonton Oilers' latest signing could spell the end for another player
Photo credit: James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images
The Edmonton Oilers re-signed Spencer Stastney, and the easy read says Ty Emberson is the odd man out.
That read counts bodies. It does not count hands.
Stastney is a left shot at $1.525 million, joining Mattias Ekholm, Jake Walman, Ryan Shea and Shakir Mukhamadullin on the same side.
That is five NHL-caliber left defensemen for three left-side spots.
Emberson is a right shot. On this roster, only Evan Bouchard and Connor Murphy share that trait.
Subtract Emberson and the Oilers drop to two right shots for three right-side slots.
The projected depth chart bumping him off entirely reads clean on paper, but it leaves the right side dangerously thin.
At $1.525 million, Stastney actually carries a higher cap hit than Emberson, so this was never a cost-cutting swap.
The squeeze is on the left, not the right
General manager Stan Bowman built this glut by trading Darnell Nurse and adding Mukhamadullin, then re-signing Stastney rather than clearing the left side.
The redundancy sits with the left shots who need waivers to move to the minors.
Mukhamadullin can play his off side, which muddies things, but a team does not carry five left defensemen and three right defensemen into October.
Something gives on the left first.
Why moving Emberson costs more than it saves
Emberson is the surviving asset from the 2024 Cody Ceci trade, a right-shot penalty killer on a clean contract with no protection clauses.
Trade him and Edmonton is thin behind Bouchard and a 33-year-old Murphy on the right.
Under Mike Babcock, who demands structure, handedness in your own zone is not a luxury.
The cheaper, easier move is dealing a surplus left shot and keeping the righty who actually balances the pairings.
Bowman knows the difference. The body count says Emberson. The roster build says otherwise.
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