Brandon Davidson played just over 25 minutes against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. Then, on Friday, he played just under 25 minutes against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The results of those games were very different, but Davidson’s play on a pairing with waiver claim Adam Pardy never waned. He delivered effective minutes for Edmonton in all three zones, and he did it all while playing on his off-side.

The Oilers have 15 games left in the year, and while the playoffs are out of sight that doesn’t mean there aren’t things to get done. Finishing strongly would do the club (and the fanbase) a lot of good and generate some excitement for next season. More importantly, though, Edmonton’s coaches and management now have a limited window to get information on some key decisions the team will need to make in the summer.

The most pivotal of those decisions is fixing the blue line.

Edmonton has some useful pieces, but almost to a man they are left-shooting defencemen who have spent most of their respective careers on the port side. If we look at the players who are locks or close to it for the roster next year, we come up with Davidson, Andrej Sekera, Oscar Klefbom and Darnell Nurse. All of those are left-shooting defencemen, and one or more is going to have to be comfortable playing on the right side.

That makes Davidson’s early success in his latest audition at starboard rather encouraging.

To me, the real question isn’t whether Davidson can play second pair minutes. He’s been so polished as a rookie, so good at everything—handling the puck, skating, physical play, positioning—that the idea of penciling him in on the second pair next year really doesn’t bother me. The question I have is whether he can translate all those things to playing on the right side.

Davidson had a tough time of it earlier in the year when playing on a lefty/lefty pairing with either Sekera or Klefbom, but he didn’t get a long run in that role and it would be dangerous to read too much into it. The coaches seem intent on taking a longer look the rest of the way, and that should do more to answer the question.

If Davidson’s success continues, that could leave Edmonton in a position where it only needs to add one good right-shot defenceman to the top-four:

Assuming “newcomer” is a legitimate top-pair defenceman (i.e. more Travis Hamonic/Kevin Shattenkirk and less Sami Vatanen) and again subject to the caveat that Davidson’s right-side success needs to continue, that’s a top-four I could live with.

The Oilers would be well-advised to take some precautions with their third pairing, though. The list of incumbents potentially in the mix for a spot outside the top four includes Nurse, Mark Fayne, Eric Gryba Adam Pardy, Adam Clendening, Griffin Reinhart, Jordan Oesterle and maybe David Musil.

Nurse is probably a lock in that third-pair role, and to me this emphasizes the value in bringing Fayne back for another year. He’s been good with Nurse, and in my view he’s been reasonably effective (particularly over the back half of the year) in a shutdown role next to Sekera. Having Fayne on the third pair makes it a little bit easier to roll the dice on Davidson in a top-four role, because there’s a fallback player who can play against tough competition if the need arises.

The presence of all those lefties also probably makes it easier to stick a right-shot in the No. 7 role, with Gryba the obvious choice.

The wrinkle here is that at some point the Oilers are going to want to work Reinhart into the mix, and that the waiver clock on David Musil hits zero coming out of training camp next year. Shoehorning those players in, however, seems less critical than giving Edmonton its best shot at a competent defence.

In a perfect world, of course, the Oilers would add a pair of right-shot defencemen, stick Davidson on the third pair next to Nurse and be totally loaded defensively. There are two possible problems with that picture, though. First, finding two good right-shot defencemen may not be possible in one summer. Second, even if it is, it may involve overpaying in trade or overpaying in contract to make it possible.

If Davidson can take on a second pair role, that’s not a risk the team will need to take.