What many expected to be a quiet July 1 for the Edmonton Oilers ended up producing as many fireworks as the Canada Day celebrations that followed.

Stan Bowman’s seat had to be feeling hot to start the summer after his club’s disappointing performance last season. But to his credit, he didn’t waste any time getting to work in free agency — he made a pair of impactful trades and signed more than half a dozen free agents on day one.

The biggest domino to fall was the Darnell Nurse trade, which cleared $9.25 million off the books and gave Edmonton the flexibility to make significant moves throughout the afternoon.

The Oilers know all too well that a busy July 1 doesn’t necessarily mean a successful one. In fact, history suggests it’s often the opposite. The key to a good free agency is to avoid albatross contracts and emerge with surplus value. I believe Bowman accomplished exactly that. Let’s discuss some of the key free agents Edmonton signed.

Ryan Shea – $4 million x 5 years

No matter how you feel about Nurse and his contract, there’s no question the Oilers needed to find a replacement when they dealt him to the San Jose Sharks. Nurse was a fixture on Edmonton’s second pair and finished fourth on the team in penalty killing minutes last season. Ultimately, they chose former Pittsburgh Penguin Ryan Shea to take up the mantle.

Shea was originally a Bowman draft pick back in 2015 for the Chicago Blackhawks, but he didn’t make his NHL debut until 2023-24 with the Penguins. Despite being a late bloomer, he’s progressed well in Pittsburgh over the last couple of years.

Shea played second-pair minutes for the Penguins last season and hit a career high of 35 points, all of which came at even strength. While a fortunate on-ice shooting percentage inflated his production, there are still plenty of encouraging offensive attributes in Shea’s game. The most noteworthy one is how confidently and accurately he can snap the puck up to his forward’s sticks.

Shea placed in the top half of the league in nearly every retrieval and exit microstat tracked by All Three Zones. He had more passing-exits per hour than 97 percent of NHL defencemen. That’s particularly refreshing compared to Nurse, who lacked the puck skills to consistently jump-start the rush with his passing. Simply put, he’s a guy who can tilt the ice in the right direction.

For Edmonton, the most intriguing quality Shea possesses might be his penalty-killing prowess. He ranked third on the Penguins in penalty kill time on ice and second best in expected goals against per hour. That’s the area where Shea will give the Oilers the biggest boost over Nurse, who struggled in a prominent PK role last season.

Shea is an excellent puck mover and penalty killer, but he isn’t without a few warts. Over the three years he’s spent in the NHL, his five-on-five defensive game is fairly inconsistent. JFresh’s model ranks him at the 30th percentile in even-strength defence over........

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