Ty Emberson’s defence coach in Hartford, the New York Rangers’ farm team, was three-time Oilers Stanley Cup winner Steve Smith and his boss there was Kris Knoblauch, now behind the Edmonton bench.
“It just proves the point that hockey is a very, very small world…the way you prepare yourself in one situation my help in another,” said the 24-year-old right-shot defenceman Emberson, who was acquired from San Jose for veteran Cody Ceci this past weekend, coming from the cellar-dweller Sharks to a team one goal from winning the Stanley Cup this past June in Florida.
Emberson—who figures to get a shot at playing with either Darnell Nurse in the second pair or Brett Kulak in the third during camp on a defensive group in flux with Ceci gone and Vincent Desharnais signing in Vancouver—has had an interesting pro path.
He was drafted by Arizona in the third round (73rd overall) in 2018, played three years at University of Wisconsin for Tony Granato, two of those years with ex-Oiler winger Dylan Holloway, but never played for the Coyotes. He played 58 games for them in the AHL, then was traded to the Rangers for Patrik Nemeth and two draft picks in 2022.
He played one year in Hartford for Smith and Knoblauch in 22-23, unable to crack a very deep Rangers NHL blueline with Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba and Braden Schneider ahead of him on right-side, then got claimed by the Sharks in September, 2023 when New York tried to send him to the minors during camp. He only played 30 Sharks games last season, mostly as partner with their best D Mario Ferraro against the other teams top two lines, but was hurt three times, the last with a serious skate cut against Anaheim.
What’s the first thing that went through his mind when told of the Oilers trade?
“Exciting to be in a competitive situation. Last year was a tough year for the Sharks, and they got first overall pick (Macklin Celebrini) and the Oilers made it all the way to the Cup finals,” said the Eau Claire, Wisc. native, who went on to win Defensive Defenceman of the Year in the AHL’s Eastern Conference with Knoblauch.
“Anytime you get moved it’s a bit of a shock,” said Emberson, who will arrive in Edmonton in about three weeks after signing a one-year $950,000 contract with Sharks in July, “but I’ve been on a couple of teams, so it’s part of the business.
“I loved my time with Kris. He’s very good at understanding players and communicating with us. He didn’t want us (defencemen) to chip it out or rim it around the boards. He wanted us making plays. And Steve was awesome as our D coach. We hit it off, same ideas as Knobber, make plays, don’t play scared.”
He had difficulty getting traction in San Jose with a lower-body, then upper-body issue, and the last, a scary skate cut.
“I had some very fluky injuries (the first a shot off his foot at a morning skate at Madison Square Garden), the last one the worst. I went to hit someone, then he went up in the air and as he was falling, the skate blade cut across my foot. I had surgery that evening. I missed the last 24 games,” he said.
What kind of player is Emberson, who played a lot with Rangers K’Andre Miller at Wisconsin and graduated with a finance degree this spring?
“I’m a solid, two-way defender, who gets the puck up to the forwards,” said Emberson, whose dad Mike owns a power marine business in northern Wisconsin and mother Missy is a stay-at-home mum.
He could be used on the NHL’s best PK with Ceci and Desharnais gone.
“That is a big part of my game where I can block a couple of shots, that’s what I can bring to the table. I’ve PK’ed just about everywhere in my career,” said Emberson.
Meanwhile, Ceci will most likely only be making a 60-game pit stop in San Jose, his fifth NHL team (Ottawa, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Edmonton). Logically he’ll be moved at the next trade deadline to a Cup contender for a good draft pick as a UFA, right-shot D. He’s played 88 post-season games, 52 over the last three seasons, a bonus for any Cup threat who can play him as a No. 5 on their depth chart.
He had heard his name repeatedly as a possible trade casualty because of the tight cap here and his $3.25 million AAV but it still must have stung. He’s now going to a team in clear rebuild, the first time that’s happened to him.
On a zoom call with San Jose reporters, he said Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson had called him Sunday night to tell him his Oilers days were over after a terrific Game 7 in Florida when he set up the only Oiler goal with breakaway pass to Mattias Janmark.
“I was at the cottage (north of Ottawa), we’d just finished dinner and saw a missed call from (Oilers CEO) Jeff Jackson…called him back and he broke the news,” said Ceci, who was signed to replace Adam Larsson in 2021 when Larsson left for Seattle, the Oilers offering a four-year deal when 10 teams were in on signing him.
“You see the rumours floating around…it’s always a little upsetting to see the rumours popping up on your phone and you try to ignore them as much as possible and keep training but we all have families and you’re always curious where you’re going to be playing at the start of a season,” said Ceci, still only 30 but with 786 regular-season games and 88 in the playoffs on his resume.
“It’s (trade) a shock at first, but I’m excited to be part of the Sharks organization. We had some good runs in Edmonton, it’s a good group of guys and now I’ll be looked at as a veteran presence on this team. You see the young talent coming into this organization which excites everyone,” said Ceci, who got a call from ex-Oilers D Matt Benning and Ferraro after the trade and exchanged texts with his former Ottawa 67s junior teammate Tyler Toffoli.
This ‘n that
- Defenceman Troy Stecher, who had a bursa sac issue in his ankle that required surgery at the end of May, has just started skating and should be ready for camp. Stecher, who had a few other teams interested in signing him July 1 but re-upped here for $788,000 AAV for two years, tried to gut it out but the problem was where the eyelets are on the skate boot, so there was no extra padding to cushion the pain.
- Over the summer, play-by-play man Jack Michaels signed a long-term deal with SportsNet to again do the Oilers TV games.
- Lots of chatter that ex-Oiler D Tyson Barrie, unbelievably without even a low-money one-year deal from some team, may get a PTO here for camp.
- Benning, starting the third year of a four-year contract in San Jose, had hip surgery in January that ended his season. They hope he’s ready to start this campaign.
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