When the Oilers traded Cody Ceci, it marked the second of two trades designed to bring the Oilers more cap compliant than they had been in years.

The first trade was Ryan McLeod out for a very highly thought of prospect, Matthew Savoie. Savoie had the advantage of being on his entry level contract, so it was an immediate salary cap win for the Oilers. The downside was that most commentators expected Savoie to spend time in the AHL. So the Oilers gained cap space, but lost a player from the roster. The Ceci deal also appeared to be a straight salary exchange with the Oilers giving up Ceci and a 3rd round pick in exchange for a $950,000 right show defenceman named Ty Emberson.

Now people could be excused for making this assumption of a salary dump because Ty Emberson had played 30 games of NHL hockey. The 3rd round pick of the Arizona Coyotes had bounced around some in his professional career. After being traded to the New York Rangers in the summer of 2023, he was promptly waived and picked up by San Jose. In his only NHL season, Emberson battled injuries most of the season which limited his play to just 500 minutes. So when Emberson arrived in Edmonton, with all due respect, there was little thought about his role on the team except in a 6/7 role. After all, he had just played his only NHL season with the San Jose Sharks, the worst team in the NHL.

However, there were some that had seen Emberson play and I suspect some of them work for the Edmonton Oilers. Emberson played four years at the University of Wisconsin overlapping time with a highly regarded Oiler prospect named Dylan Holloway. In addition, he played a season in the AHL with the Hartford Wolfpack for a coach by the name of Kris Knoblauch.

Personally, I saw Emberson a lot at Wisconsin and then in the AHL with Tuscon. For me, I wasn’t resigned to Emberson being an afterthought. I even posted so on the X.

What makes me, and far more importantly Oilers coaching and management, more confident in the contributions he can make with the Edmonton Oilers? Well, let’s go to the tape and find out.

Before talking about Ty Emberson at all, we must talk about Darnell Nurse. Nurse’s long time partner in Edmonton was Cody Ceci. When the Oilers did not add a significant player at right defence, it became apparent that Troy Stetcher, Joshua Brown or Ty Emberson was going to get an audition with Nurse. It became apparently quite quickly in training camp that Ty Emberson was first man up. In order to talk about Emberson, we first need to talk about Darnell Nurse. Nurse is the most controversial player on the Oilers. Most of this relates to the large contract he signed in the summer of 2021 and the sense that it was too large for his contributions to the Oilers. For the purposes of this article, Nurse’s contract doesn’t matter. Here we just want to understand his playing style and how it might provide clues as whether Ty Emberson can work with him.

Nurse is a tremendous athlete. A big, rangy defenceman who can skate like the wind and play a ton of minutes. His most prominent skill is his skating. He’s 6’4″ and 216 pounds, but he skates like a player much smaller. He is quick and powerful and he can be very effective when he is moving his feet. Naturally, it stands to reason he is quite impactful in carrying the puck into the zone and participating in the offence. Indeed, he is as good or better than Evan Bouchard in entries that create chances.

On defence, similarly his skating is a focus. He is good at retrieving the puck and skating the puck out of harm on his own. Unfortunately, it is at this point where Nurse starts to show some flaws in his game. To start, Nurse is not a very good passer of the puck.  Indeed, if you review the great work of Corey Sznadjer at All Three Zones, Nurse is quite poor in getting the puck out by the pass. This leads to Nurse having one of the poorer rates of exiting the zone with possession on the team. If he can carry it, he is ok. If he is forced to pass, it more often results in a turnover or am uncontrolled exit that comes back into the Oilers zone.

The other major issue is Nurse’s in-zone defensive play. While he does have a decent rate of entry denial, he is attacked so often that is entry defence is actually very average. So, he ends up giving up the blueline a fair amount. This allows teams to set up their offensive patterns without a lot of pressure. Then we get into his cycle defence which is a big challenge. Nurse can get following the puck and moved out of position quite often. Again, he is a great skater so he roams some because he does have the ability to close gaps. However, it can lead to challenges for his teammates in how to react.

In summary, Darnell Nurse is an athletic defender who can impact the game with his skating. However, his skating can lead him to being undisciplined in his assignments in his defensive zone. In addition, he is not a good passer of the puck and that can lead to defensive turnovers or uncontrolled exits resulting in quick counterstrikes.

Due to an injury, the Oilers have only run the pairing of Nurse and Emberson out once this pre-season. Fortunately, it was against a very tough opponent in the Vancouver Canucks who were having their last tune-up before the season began. So the Canucks ran a NHL line-up against the Oilers, who did the same. The pairing of Nurse and Emberson played almost 16 minutes together in the 4-1 loss with 14 of those minutes being at even strength. The pairing was actually quite good in this game. They got a healthy dose of each line with the most minutes going to the Henrique line followed by the Draisaitl line. The pair had a very strong expected goal percentage of 61.43% and were not on for a goal for or against in their time together including the penalty kill.

While the game represents a very small sample size, it gave us some clues about how these two players could work together. The first thing we learning about Ty Emberson is that he loves to defend with tight gaps. Here is an example of a neutral zone play where Emberson sees he has forward help in the middle, so steps up on the opponent and forces a turnover. He refuses to give ground here when he has support and that is a very good trait.

Here is another example at his blueline. He refuses to back off the attacker. Instead, he brings pressure the entire way. When the puck goes low, he has great footwork to get back into position and jump on a loose puck for a clear.

Both of these clips give me optimism that Emberson will be a partner who plays a more aggressive style of defence. He will keep his gaps tight and challenge attackers before they can set-up. This would be a very useful asset in partnering with Darnell Nurse. Nurse can be a little more passive and his prior partner, Cody Ceci, was even more so.

The other really notable part of Emberson’s game was his passing. He is a very good passer of the puck. Watch this sweet retrieval pass where he scans the ice before getting to the puck and makes a very simple play to start an attack up ice.

Even more interesting is Emberson is quite willing to press the attack off his retrieval passing. Watch this great little breakout play with he and Nurse on the reverse. Then watch Emberson get on the weakside and help the Oilers get up the ice into the zone with control.

Partnering Darnell Nurse with someone who can pass the puck well off retrievals and transition plays is something I have spoke openly about for years. This is a way for the Oilers to spend less time defending and more time attacking.

In the zone, I was quite impressed with Emberson’s ability to work on the walls despite his size. Here is a really good example. Emberson has a tough bounce on a set play to reverse the puck to Nurse and is faced with a 1v3 in the corner. I love how he uses his stick and his body to defend enough to break up the quick attack. Then when the play goes down low, watch how he pins the Vancouver player and then immobilizes him using his lower body. Eventually, the Oilers did the puck out and transition out of the zone.

When  the pairing was caught defending, it was mostly solid work. Here is a really good example. Off a loss possession, the two set up on each post net front marking players. When the puck comes low, Nurse takes the man and goes all the way to the other side with him. You can see Emberson twitch to go help, but instead he sees the opposition have players in danger spots so stays home and let’s the center work over to the puck. The result is a transition play for the Oilers and out it goes.

Here is another one off a face-off. Watch the composure of Emberson here working with Nurse who moves up the zone. Emberson marks his man in the slot and stays on him. He ties him up until Nurse and the Oiler forwards can get better positioned to assist. The result is a clear and the danger is repelled very quickly.

If the two of them can manage their in-zone defending like this against high skill teams, there is a lot of hope for this pairing.

Now it doesn’t mean there were not moments. Here is an example of the type of play that can cause issues. This is a broken play and it is one that causes Darnell Nurse to sometimes lose his way. Here Nurse stays up on the puck instead of backing off and that leads to a 2v1 against that Emberson is late to react too. Then when Nurse gets puck watching, Emberson moves to the left side and takes the net front player. Nurse, for some reason, stays over there as well instead of moving across and taking the dangerous player. This leaves a lane straight to the net.

The other area where there could be issues is on the attack. Both players very much like to be in the play. Watch what happens here when Leon Draisaitl gets the puck at his blueline.

That became a very risky play because both defenders went. In this case, Emberson would have been better to stop up and give Draisaitl an outlet back down low. Communication on these issues will be critical.

Well, it’s too soon. 16 minutes of time on ice is not enough, but if you asked me what a prototype partner for Darnell Nurse would look like, Ty Emberson might be it. He’s a very good skater who can pass the puck extremely well. He loves to defend up the ice with tight gaps in all three zones. He seems very composed in his own zone and is quite strong on the wall despite being undersized. There are greenshoots of promise here. However, Emberson has played 30 games in the NHL and only one exhibition game with Nurse. There will be painful moments. How often the occur and whether that gets smoothed out by year end will have serious implications for an Oiler playoff run.

That’s it for me today. Appreciate you taking time to read the article. Leave me feedback here or on the X to @bcurlock. See you at the rink.