New addition Murphy absent from Oilers lineup Tuesday vs. Senators

The Edmonton Oilers traded a second-round draft pick to the Chicago Blackhawks for Connor Murphy.

The new guy won’t be joining the Edmonton Oilers’ lineup Tuesday night, but they’re looking forward to having him in the lineup.

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said Tuesday before his team’s morning skate ahead of hosting the Ottawa Senators (7 p.m.) that the addition of Connor Murphy to the blueline corps should help them keep the puck out of the net.

Murphy, who turns 33 later this month, is a dependable shut-down defenceman who should slot in on the Oilers’ third pairing when he’s available. He averaged 16.5 minutes of ice time in 60 games this season with the Chicago Blackhawks and led them with 87 blocked shots before Monday’s deal that saw the Oilers send their 2028 second-round draft pick the other way.

“I think (adding Murphy will) take a lot of stress off of a lot of defencemen who’ve been playing a lot of minutes,” Knoblauch told reporters.

“He’s a (tall), strong body who’s good at blocking shots, but I think the biggest improvement will be at five-on-five, not giving up as many chances, and he’ll also help with our pairs and give all our guys a good partner.”

The Oilers’ top 4 blueline regulars average 20 minutes or more per game: Evan Bouchard (24:35), Darnell Nurse (20:47), Mattias Ekholm (20:47) and Jake Walman (19:59). On the bottom pairing, Spencer Statsney clocks in with an average of 16:08 in ice-time, Ty Emberson 16:01 and Alec Regula, who was sent to AHL Bakersfield on Monday, 14:28.

And as much as adding a defender with street cred helps, players know it’s not the entire solution to their woes. Parroting what Stan Bowman, the Oilers’ general manager, said on Monday before acquiring Murphy, superstar captain Connor McDavid said he believes “the answers are in the room.”

“We’ve shown that we can play that way at times,” McDavid told media. “It hasn’t shown up all the time. It needs to show up more.”

The Oilers rank 26th out of the league’s 32 teams in goals against this season.

Their play without the puck in a handful of games before and after the recent Winter Olympics break has been alarming, going 1-5 after sitting tied with the Vegas Golden Knights for the division lead. Their most recent losses, both to Pacific Division rivals, were sloppy defensively: 6-5 to the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday and 5-4 to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday.

It’s led to the Oilers slipping behind the surging Ducks and Seattle Kraken in the Pacific pecking order and dropping into the final wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference heading into Tuesday’s action, just four points ahead of the Sharks.

“Right now, there should be a lot of urgency on winning games, playing good hockey, but we control our fate,” Knoblauch said. It’s not that we have to bank on other teams losing games and us winning. We just have to win our games."

Projected Oilers lineup

Forward

• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins • Connor McDavid • Zach Hyman
• Vasily Podkolzin • Leon Draisaitl • Kasperi Kapanen
• Matt Savoie • Jack Roslovic • Josh Samanski
• Curtis Lazar • Adam Henrique • Trent Frederic

Defence

• Jake Walman • Evan Bouchard
• Darnell Nurse • Ty Emberson
• Mattias Ekholm • Spencer Stastney

Goal

• Connor Ingram • Tristan Jarry

Projected Senators lineup

Forward

• Drake Batherson • Tim Stützle • Claude Giroux
• Brady Tkachuk • Dylan Cozens • Ridly Greig
• Nick Cousins • Shane Pinto • Michael Amadio
• Stephen Halliday • Lars Eller • Fabian Zetterlund

Defence

• Jake Sanderson • Artem Zub
• Thomas Chabot • Nick Jensen
• Tyler Kleven • Jordan Spence

Goal

• Linus Ullmark • James Reimer