On Sunday, the Edmonton Oilers announced they had signed veteran defensive shutdown centre, Jason Dickinson. The Oilers signed their 30 year old 2026 NHL trade deadline rental to a five-year contract extension worth $20 million, or $4 million per season.
This comes after reporting in recent days from David Pagnotta of the Fourth Period and Mark Spector, senior columnist at Sportsnet saying that the Oilers were working on contracts for their deadline acquisitions, Dickinson and defenceman Connor Murphy.
Now, according to reports from Oilers TSN beat reporter, Ryan Rishaug the Oilers are closing in on a contract extension for the veteran defenceman, Murphy. Given Oilers general manager Stan Bowman's track record with contract extensions, there is some cause for concern but overall, retaining Murphy makes sense for the Oilers.
Sounds like solid progress has been made between Murphy and the Oilers, wouldn’t be surprised to see something get done in the next day or so.
— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) June 21, 2026
As of right now, the 2026 Free Agent class seems to becoming more and more of a barren wasteland, especially after the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Darren Raddysh from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a blockbuster sign-and-trade over this past weekend.
Connor Murphy effect on the Edmonton Oilers
Following his acquisition ahead of the 2026 trade deadline, Murphy changed the makeup of the Oilers defensive pairings. He gave the club their stay-at-home defenceman they had been searching for, giving the Oilers the ability to move their pairings around, balancing their blueline with puckmovers and defensive defenders.
It allowed the Oilers to split the pairing of Jake Walman and Darnell Nurse who had struggled at times this past season. It also gave them a defenceman who was able to play heavy defensive minutes, logging a significant amount of time on the penalty kill in just 20 games with the Oilers.
There is some risk to signing a 33 year old defenceman who has struggled through injuries in recent years. Although this past season he played in 80 games, the previous two years saw him play 46 in 2023-24, and 68 in 2024-25. If he can stay mostly healthy and if the cap hit can come down below his current $4.4 million annual average value, it could be a worthwhile contract.
We will have to wait and see how the contract negotiations play out and despite there being some cause for concern given his track record, Bowman can hopefully get Murphy talked down to a reasonable AAV on his extension with the Oilers.
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