Oilers acquire defenceman Murphy from Blackhawks

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

While the Edmonton Oilers have added a new defenceman to the roster ahead of Friday’s trade deadline, fans shouldn’t expect a parade of new faces.

Not only because the National Hockey League team sits up against the salary cap, but because the man governing the roster believes “there’s more from within.”

General manager Stan Bowman told media less than two hours before the Oilers acquired defenceman Connor Murphy from the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday that, while he’s had “conversations” about adding a blueliner or a forward by the NHL deadline, he believes the solution to what may ail his defensively challenged team lies within.

The Blackhawks, who retain half of Murphy’s $4.4-million annual salary, receive the Oilers’ second-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft in return.

“Certainly, adding a player is something we’re looking for, and I think it can be helpful, but it’s not like it’s going to completely change the fortunes of our team,” the second-year team GM said. “We’ve got a lot of really good players here, and it’s that commitment from our group to playing smarter hockey, winning hockey, I think, that is going to probably pay the biggest dividends.”

Murphy, 32, has scored four goals and 13 assists in 60 games for Chicago this season while averaging 16:34 of ice time per contest. The six-foot-four, right-shot American is in the final year of a four-year contract.

The Oilers have lost ground in the Pacific Division standings of late, having lost five of their last six games, including two of the three games they’ve played since the NHL resumed action last week following a three-week break for the Winter Olympics. Before the break, Edmonton had lost three games in a row.

In those six games, the Oilers have given up a league-worst 4.67 goals against per game while averaging 4.17 goals for, good for third-best in that timeframe.

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Before their recent jag, the Oilers had been tied atop the Pacific Division standings with the Vegas Golden Knights, five points clear of the Anaheim Ducks and Seattle Kraken.

Now, Edmonton (29-24-8) sits third in the division, three points behind Anaheim, four back of Vegas and one point ahead of Seattle.

Bowman’s media conference came an hour before the Oilers announced they had assigned recently waived winger Andrew Mangiapane and defenceman Alec Regula to their minor-league affiliate in Bakersfield, Calif., called up forwards Josh Samanski and Ike Howard from said American Hockey League squad, and placed bottom-six forward Mattias Janmark on long-term injured reserve -- moves that, in tandem, free up cap space.

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Mangiapane is the most significant name among these moves. The 29-year-old signed a two-year, $7.2-million contract with the Oilers last summer, ostensibly to fill a top-six forward role following the departures of the likes of Corey Perry and Evander Kane. He has scored seven goals and nine assists in 52 games to go with a minus-19 plus/minus this season.

Shortly after the player moves, insider talk picked up suggesting the Oilers were getting close to pulling off a deal with the Chicago Blackhawks for defenceman Connor Murphy.

In the meantime, both players and head coach Kris Knoblauch after Monday practice offered oft-repeated mantras of the need for better defensive play, with blueliner Mattias Ekholm saying players need to get into the right mindset while defending and “bear down doing it,” and the coach pointing to “a lot of miscues” in the slot despite seeing improved play by his team in front of their netminders.