Is there a better defence pairing in the NHL right now than the top Edmonton Oilers tandem of Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm? There might be but you can count the number on one hand.
At the same time, the bottom end of the Edmonton Oilers defence has a Decade of Darkness odor to it, full of players who are being asked to slot into roles they’ve rarely or never successfully held before, this on a team that many consider to be a favourite for the Stanley Cup.
Once you get past Bouchard and Ekholm, there’s nothing but questions on Edmonton’s defence.
Can Darnell Nurse get out of his wretched slump and again lay claim to being a solid NHL d-man? Can Brett Kulak finally come through in a Top 4 role if called upon? Can promising newcomer Ty Emberson stick as Nurse’s partner on the second-pairing, or at least hold his own in a more limited role? Can the Oilers find one or two useful d-men in their long list of cast-away newcomers, including Josh Brown, Troy Stecher, Ben Gleason, Travis Dermott, Connor Carrick and Cam Dineen, with long-time Oilers prospect Phil Kemp also in the running? 
That Decade of Darkness vibe
In the first three years of the Decade of Darkness 2006 to 2009, the Oilers defence remained a strength of the team, led by players like Ladi Smid, Steve Staios, Tom Gilbert, Denis Grebeshkov, Lubo Visnovsky, and Sheldon Souray, at least when Souray was healthy.
But after Steve Tambellini took over as GM, the defence rapidly deteriorated, partly due to injury to key players like Souray and newcomer Ryan Whitney. Without those two to lead the way, and with both Visnovsky and Gilbert traded away, Edmonton struggled to find any d-man who could handle even a Top 4 role, let alone a top-pairing job.
Jeff Petry came the closest but he, too, was traded away. Meanwhile, Oilers management placed bets on all kinds of d-men who didn’t come close to cutting it, including Taylor Chorney, Theo Peckham, Jim Vandermeer, Kurtis Foster, Colten Teubert, Cam Barker, Mark Fistric, Martin Marincin, Anton Belov, Philip Larsen, Keith Aulie, Mark Fayne, Nikita Nikitin, and Griffin Reinhart.
The bottom end of the Oilers d-man roster has a similar feel to this Decade of Darkness group but there’s one major difference. With Bouchard and Ekholm at the top of the roster, Edmonton has a pairing that can handle heavy minutes against tough competition, which will make it considerably easier for every other d-man on the roster, starting with Nurse. He won’t be asked to the team’s No. 1 guy, just to get the job done as a shut-down d-man on the second pairing.
Nurse has yet to play an exhibition game due to injury, though he is practicing. As I’ve written before, the first order of business for defensive coach Paul Coffey is to work his magic with Nurse, the one and only d-man who saw his game regress after Coffey took over as coach.
If Nurse can again play as a solid Top 4 d-man, as he so often did from 2019 to 2023, that will solve a lot of problems for the Oilers.
I still wonder if we’ll see Kulak on his right side, as Kulak has had three strong playoff seasons in a row for Edmonton and could well be ready for heavier minutes. Or it could be that Emberson will step up and earn the spot next to Nurse.
If Coffey can find a solution to his second pairing dilemma, it won’t be much of a chore to find two d-men who can get it done in more limited roles on the third-pairing. One of Emberson or Kulak will lead the pairing, with Brown and Stecher next in line.
It’s one thing to ask Brown or Stecher or Emberson to succeed on a bottom-paring, and another thing to count on one of them to play higher up the line-up. But that’s likely not what will be asked of them, at least if there are no major injuries to the top-end guys.
There’s plenty to worry about here. But, again, Edmonton hasn’t had a pairing as solid as Bouchard and Ekholm at the top of the roster since Chris Pronger led the way in the 2006 playoffs.
Both the puck-moving and the defensive play came together for Bouchard and Ekholm in the 2024 playoffs, and it’s fair to expect them to pick up where they left off, if not improve on their play together.
Of course, if nothing works out for the Oilers on defence, the team can always go the trade route, but that kind of move is months away. For now we see which d-man steps up in pre-season play. So far, no one new d-man has grabbed a job by the throat, though Ben Gleason was solid in the Calgary game.
If Coffey can take one of these newcomers and turn him into a solid Top 4 option in the next few months, his reputation as an elite defensive coach at the NHL level will be secured.
At the Cult of Hockey
STAPLES: Review of Oilers-Flames split-squad game at Edmonton
LEAVINS: Gleason looks good in Calgary loss
STAPLES: Evander Kane out for as many as 6 months after surgery
McCURDY: Oilers lose pre-season opener to Winnipeg Jets
LEAVINS: The fixer and the closer, 9 Things