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Ryan Shea’s strong Oilers debut, in sync with the top unit, comes as no surprise

Photo credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images

By Sean Panganiban

Sep 21, 2026, 19:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 21, 2026, 17:01 EDT

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Doesn’t it feel good to watch Edmonton Oilers hockey again, even if it’s only pre-season?

In Saturday’s 5-2 pre-season win over the Winnipeg Jets, Oilers’ off-season addition Ryan Shea made a big impact on the blue line, recording three points and earning the game’s first-star honours.

I recently wrote a piece making a bold prediction that Shea would overtake Jake Walman for a top-four spot. However, as pre-season has gotten underway, it seems Mattias Ekholm is the odd man out of the top four for now, with him being paired with Shakir Mukhamadullin perhaps to mentor the young blueliner.

That said, it looks like Shea is in fact going to be given a shot in the top four right off the bat, but what I didn’t predict was the D-man being elevated to the top pair alongside Evan Bouchard.

A top-pair spot for Shea had crossed my mind, but I couldn’t pull the trigger on making that bold of a claim. Yet, the reason it crossed my mind is simple…

When Shea is paired with Bouchard, that means he’ll be playing with top forwards like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who are as elite as they come in the NHL, something we saw last game. And while playing on the top pair and with the team’s top unit may seem like a big jump for a D-man with only 150 regular-season games under his belt, Shea has already shown he can excel playing with elite players, having done so last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Crosby and Malkin’s underlying metrics improved when playing with Shea

In 2025-26, Shea played with Kris Letang on a pairing for parts of the season, and they were often paired with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, two future Hall of Famers.

That said, I’ve previously mentioned that at five-on-five, several of Crosby’s metrics were much better when playing with Shea over 239:58 minutes last regular season, according to Natural Stat Trick.

For example, Crosby’s CF% improved from 50.28 without Shea to 52.34 per cent with him; his xGF% went from 50.93 to 52.85 per cent, and his SCF% went from 48.21 to 50.88 per cent. Also, his GF% saw the biggest jump, going from 52.63 per cent without Shea to 62.96 per cent with him, while his high-danger chance percentage (HDCF%) improved from 49.12 per cent to 55.67 per cent.

Crosby’s five-on-five metrics with and without Shea in 2025-26, via Natural Stat Trick.

Furthermore, Malkin, a former Hart Trophy winner, also saw his numbers improve in several categories when paired with Shea last season.

At five-on-five, Malkin’s CF% went from 47.11 per cent without Shea to 51.21 per cent with him, while his FF% improved from 49.84 to 50.48 per cent. His xGF% increased from 50.30 to 53.96 per cent, his SCF% went from 49.21 to 53.06 per cent, and his HDCF% improved from 49.05 to 54.92 per cent.

Malkin’s five-on-five metrics with and without Shea in 2025-26, via Natural Stat Trick.

I’m a big eye-test person just as much as I read into analytics, and admittedly, I didn’t watch a lot of Shea paired with Crosby and Malkin last season, but the underlying numbers speak for themselves — suggesting that Shea can play a role in improving the play of elite players, a good indication he may be able to do the same with McDavid and Draisaitl moving forward.

That said, with the Oilers putting more emphasis on analytics, I’m wondering if the fact that Pittsburgh’s elite players saw their numbers improve with Shea could have played a part in putting the blueliner on Edmonton’s top pair out of the gate. Nevertheless, Shea’s first game playing with Bouchard didn’t disappoint, pre-season or not.

Shea looked right at home with the top unit in his first game

The Milton, Mass. native played the second-most minutes (22:31) against the Jets, just behind Bouchard’s 25:09. He made some nice plays, scored a goal, added two assists, finished +4, and looked very in sync with the top unit.

In the post-game interview, when he was asked how much he played with Crosby last season, Shea responded, “A decent amount,” and made the connection himself between playing with Pittsburgh’s elite forwards and Edmonton’s:

“I think I started the first half of the season with Letang, so he’s always out there with Sid and those guys, but it’s kind of the same thing [in Edmonton], you want to find them as much as possible.
Obviously, you kind of get used to it and when you have an opportunity to shoot, you have to take advantage of it, so, it’s just about being comfortable with those guys. If they have an opportunity, you gotta expect them to do the best with it, and if I have an opportunity, then they know I’m either going to find them, or shoot.”

On that note, he looked ever so comfortable playing with Bouchard, McDavid and Draisaitl, and nowhere was that more evident than on the goal he scored in the first period.

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The blueliner also talked about confidence after the game, saying, “There’s no reason my confidence should be down right now. After that game, I got used to playing with Bouch and those guys [McDavid and Draisaitl], a little bit more.”

That said, let’s talk about Shea’s goal and what it can do for his confidence moving forward.

Before we get there, though, let’s take a look at the big picture for a second. Shea was one of the Oilers’ most notable off-season signings, brought in after 11-year Oiler Darnell Nurse was traded. Now, Edmonton has put him in a prominent role next to elite blueliner Evan Bouchard.

Pre-season or not, there was and is a lot of pressure on Shea.

But against the Jets, in one of his first chances to play with the top unit, something he’s likely rehearsed many times over in his mind since he signed with the Oilers, he received a cross-ice pass from Draisaitl, made a couple of savvy moves and ripped the puck past Thomas Milic. That’s the kind of sequence that can do wonders for a player’s confidence.

All in all, it’s only one game, but what a debut it was for Shea. Yes, it’s preseason, yes, it’s ‘just’ Thomas Milic in net, but after everything Shea did in his first game, he should have plenty to feel good about coming out of the gate. More importantly, first impressions matter, and his overall performance could go a long way toward earning the trust of his elite teammates moving forward.

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