With a softer schedule in the coming weeks, the Edmonton Oilers are trying something new, mixing up their defensive pairings during Friday’s practice.

The Oilers have broken up the longstanding top pairing of Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard, bumping the former to the second pairing alongside Ty Emberson, while Darnell Nurse gets bumped up to the top pairing with Bouchard. Edmonton’s third pairing will see Brett Kulak and Troy Stecher skate together.

It appears the Oilers will run the new looks for Saturday’s game against the San Jose Sharks, who roll into town for a matinee game, before Edmonton hosts the Ottawa Senators Sunday night.

Since Ekholm arrived by way of trade in February 2023, he and Bouchard have played almost exclusively at five-on-five together, and have been nothing short of dominant. In 2000 minutes, they’ve controlled 59.8 percent of the shot attempt share, 60.4 percent of the scoring chance share, 60.3 percent of the expected goal share and 63.6 percent of the actual goal share.

The only other pairing for the team that’s played close to as many minutes over that time is Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci, who spent 1200 minutes together.

In the NHL these days it’s not often that pairings stick together for such significant amounts of time. In fact, there’s only eight pairings — including Ekholm and Bouchard — who played 1500 minutes or more since they started playing together: Brent Burns and Jaccob Slavin, Dylan DeMelo and Josh Morrissey, Nick Leddy and Colton Parayko, Devon Toews and Cale Makar, Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn, Filip Hronek and Quinn Hughes, and Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling.

With Darnell Nurse playing some of the best hockey of his career this season, he and Bouchard will likely see the most minutes of the new pairings. But bumping Ekholm down alongside Emberson gives the Oilers a stable, strong second-paring. Emberson’s come into his own as of last for the Oilers, playing strong defence, while Ekholm’s excellent two-way game continues to be his calling card.

Kulak, meanwhile, might be enjoying one of the best seasons of his career, too, providing play well above that of a first-pairing defenceman, according to Hockey Viz. He’ll anchor that third pairing with Stecher.

Between Saturday and January 3rd, the Oilers schedule is as follows: vs. Sharks, vs. Senators, at Los Angeles Kings, at Anaheim Ducks, vs. Utah Hockey Club, vs. Ducks. A soft schedule like this is the perfect time for the Oilers to tinker with their lines, and see what they have.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist, making up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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