The Edmonton Oilers and defenceman Connor Murphy have come to terms on a new 5 year, $20.4M deal the club announced on Monday. The new pact will feature an average annual value of $4.1M, and comes just a day after the team inked forward Jason Dickinson to a 5 year extension of his own.
Murphy was brought to town in exchange for a 2028 second round pick in an effort to help get the team over the playoff hump. The 33 year old would go on to record 5G, 12A across 80 games split between the Oilers and Blackhawks last season.
Originally drafted 20th overall by the Phoenix Coyotes back in 2011, Murphy has appeared in 825 career games, tallying 177 points along the way. The 6’4″ blue liner was set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason as his 4 year, $17.6M pact was set to expire.
Per initial reports, Murphy’s deal is believed to feature a full no movement clause for years 1-3, and a modified no move clause in years 4-5. The final two years of his deal will feature a 16 team approved trade list in 2030 and 2031.
After signing both Dickinson and Murphy to new deals, Edmonton figures to have somewhere around $7.5M in cap space remaining heading into free agency. The club will have to make decisions in relatively short order on what to do with pending free agents Adam Henrique, Curtis Lazar, Kasperi Kapanen, Jack Roslovic, Max Jones, and soon to be RFA Colton Dach.
One move that could help free up much needed space would be to move defender Darnell Nurse off the books. His $9.25M AAV contract would provide a major boost to the team’s financial outlook, though there’s also a very real possibility that Edmonton would need to retain a portion of his salary in any potential deal.
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.