Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli believes that defenceman Ty Emberson will be a pleasant surprise for the Oilers in terms of his offensive abilities and two-way game.
During a guest appearance on ON Everyday with Tyler Yaremchuk and Liam Horrobin, they asked Seravalli why he thinks Emberson will be a potential breakout this season and he believes that the American blueliner is more than just a defensive defenceman.
“I actually think he has way more offense to provide,” he said. “I wouldn’t even classify him as a defensive defenseman. This is someone that could probably pile up points in a pinch and at even strength, should be able to get a number of pucks on net. When you look at his shots on net per 60, they would have been third on the Oilers last year among defensemen.”
The stat that Seravalli mentioned is accurate, according to Statmuse, as Emberson would have indeed finished third among Oilers defenders in shots on net per 60. While it may seem hard to believe for some Oilers fans that this will translate, given Emberson only appeared in 30 games last season, the underlying numbers suggest there is something there.
On a historically bad Sharks team, his possession numbers, shots %, and scoring chances numbers were in the upper half of San Jose’s defenders with a minimum of 490 minutes played at 5v5. What that means is those numbers are bound to improve on a better team like the Oilers, where he will be put in a position to succeed rather than struggling to hold his head above water on a team that went on to draft Macklin Celebrini first overall.
Seravalli believes that in combination with the blueliner’s familiarity with coach Kris Knoblauch will create the ideal scenario for Emberson to flourish.
“I think they made the best of a bad situation,” he said. “Losing Broberg and Holloway and that combined offer sheet deal. They had to do something about Cody Ceci at some point this season. It’s a lot easier to do it now and acrew cap space as opposed to being held over a barrel. The fact that he played for Kris Knoblauch in Hartford not long ago, this is a really good curated selection, a guy on a bad team that has more to give.”
He went on to mention that the big question mark will be how Emberson does when paired up with Darnell Nurse, and making that work could help resolve a lot of doubts about the Oilers’ blueline. The Edmonton faithful doesn’t need to be reminded of just how bad things got for Nurse last season from a reliability standpoint to the point where he was included on Trade Target lists in the middle of the Stanley Cup Final.
The Nurse contract will remain an overpayment no matter what, but it can be seen as a bit more palpable if he can somewhat regain his form and grow some confidence. Pairing him with Ceci did not work, so perhaps Emeberson can help bring out the best in the Hamilton native.
Of course, it would be a lot to ask of a defenceman entering only his second NHL season and one coming from a tanking team. But Seravalli believes that Emberson will flourish while donning the Blue and Orange, which in turn should benefit the team in a lot of ways.
You can watch the full interview down below:
