EDMONTON — There’s no more important battle at Edmonton Oilers training camp than earning the spot next to Darnell Nurse on the second pair of the blue line. Ty Emberson is the early leader but has some complications to work around.
“It could be fluid,” coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We hope we can find somebody who can really take off in that position. That’s the idea.
“But there are going to be injuries. There are going to be changes. We’d like a regular partner, but we’re not setting anything in stone.”
Emberson, 24, is getting the first look on Nurse’s right side despite having just 30 games of NHL experience. All that time came as a rookie in an injury-plagued 2023-24 season. In August, he was dealt to Edmonton from San Jose for Nurse’s longtime partner Cody Ceci.
Though it’s a little odd that Emberson has a chance to replace the player for whom he was traded, the barriers at play here also concern Nurse.
Nurse is limited to practice for the start of camp because he’s managing an injury. While everyone is mum on the specifics, Nurse got hurt in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final after being checked by Florida Panthers winger Evan Rodrigues. He skated off the ice holding his left hip, played sparingly in that game but remained in the lineup for the rest of the series.
Though Nurse said he’s unsure if he’ll play any exhibition games, Knoblauch expects him to suit up in at least a couple ahead of the regular season opener against Winnipeg on Oct. 9.
That means Nurse and Emberson — and other potential partners for the longtime Oiler — will be trying to develop chemistry away from game action for at least another week.
“Communication’s the biggest thing,” Nurse said. “When you communicate early, you can that second sense of where your partner’s going to be.”
Still, not playing games together is less than ideal — at least on the surface. The Oilers experienced the pitfalls of a similar scenario a year ago.
The plan last camp was to use Mattias Ekholm with Swedish countryman Philip Broberg, but a groin/hip flexor injury to Ekholm sustained in a captain’s skate sidelined him until the second game of the season. The Ekholm-Broberg partnership was abandoned when Ekholm returned following an 8-1 loss in Vancouver in the opener.
But Knoblauch nor Nurse is too worried about Nurse’s ability to mesh with a new partner before he’s ready to play again.
“It’s overrated how important it is,” the coach said.
“We get more than enough reps in practice,” added the blueliner. “As long as you’re detailed and focused and purposeful in your reps in practice, those things come about.”
There’s no question it’ll be an adjustment for Nurse whenever he plays his first game this season given how often he shared the ice with Ceci.
Nurse and Ceci became partners in January 2022. From that month through the end of last season, they spent 2,556 five-on-five minutes together — sixth-most of any pairing in the NHL, per Natural Stat Trick. Nurse spent 85 percent of his five-on-five ice time in the 2023-24 regular season with Ceci. They also usually played the penalty kill together.
On top of that, Nurse’s secondary partner, Vincent Desharnais, signed as a free agent with Vancouver. He also got paired with Broberg in the final, and Broberg is now in St. Louis.
GM Stan Bowman said Wednesday the right side of the defence behind star Evan Bouchard is something the Oilers must get sorted out. He added that he expects Emberson, July 1 signee Josh Brown and the retained Troy Stecher to all be factors for the team this season. Veteran Travis Dermott is also at camp on a tryout. He’s a lefty who can play the right side.
All those players, combined with the likelihood of an in-season trade to bolster the position, means Nurse could have a few different defence partners in the weeks and months ahead.
It’s Emberson who gets the first attempt to stake his claim to the top-four gig next to Nurse.
“It’s an unreal opportunity for me,” Emberson said.
It’s also a big responsibility.
Emberson is also going from the worst team in the NHL last season to one that was a victory from winning the Stanley Cup. There’s a lot of pressure to perform.
On top of that, he has a limited big-league track record. He was in and out of the lineup because of various ailments before a lower-body laceration in February ended his season.
“It’s just finding my routine, finding my composure and my steps in the right direction,” Emberson said. “By the end of last year, I was very confident in my game and who I was.”
Emberson has the benefit of knowing Knoblauch, for whom he played during the 2022-23 season in AHL Hartford. He would have started last season there again, but he was claimed off waivers by the Sharks last September. The familiarity should help.
Knoblauch said Emberson’s defending is his biggest strength. He counts Emberson’s mobility and skating prowess as other attributes. And then there’s his puck-moving abilities.
“From the video I saw of him in San Jose, he took another step,” Knoblauch said. “Hopefully, he can continue to build off that.”
Knoblauch said Nurse, like so many other blueliners, could benefit from playing with someone adept at breaking the puck out. It’s why, he said, Stecher could be another option next to Nurse.
But it’s Emberson who has a leg up right now on the most important job up for grabs on the team.
“There’s a lot of promise with him,” Knoblauch said.
(Photo: Joel Auerbach / Getty Images)
