In terms of trade pickups the Edmonton Oilers have made in recent years, you can put the acquisition of Jake Walman right up there with Mattias Ekholm. You can consider the impact they made to the blue line in a similar sense.

While Ekholm came in and helped steady a rocky Evan Bouchard in his early days, Walman came in and helped stabilize other parts of the blue line. While he only played 15 regular season games after being acquired for a conditional first round pick, he put up a goal and six points at five-on-five, with excellent assist and point rates. He ate pucks left right and centre, and his shots on goal per hour rate was the highest among all Oilers defencemen this season.

His underlying numbers weren’t perfect from a defensive standpoint, but he greatly outweighed them with an ability to drive offence up the ice. According to Hockey Viz, Walman drove offence at a 13 percent rate above league average and defence at a one percent rate above league average. His overall contributions were well above that of a first-pairing defencemen.

And come the playoffs, Walman ramped his game up to another level. He chipped in 10 points in 22 games, blocking the most shots per hour, 8.8, and found other ways to impact the game, too, with his smooth skating to get out of trouble defensively and a knack for the offensive zone.

He, alongside John Klingberg, formed a great pairing through the first three rounds of the playoffs. At five-on-five, they controlled 56.7 percent of the expected goal share and 55.6 percent of the actual goal share, though those numbers dipped in the Final.

Walman is entering the final year of a three-year, $3.4-million AAV extension originally signed with the Detroit Red Wings, and is set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. There’s no denying the Oilers will work to keep him around, as at 29-years-old, he fits right into the core of this team.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.