With deadline week officially upon us in the NHL, Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman wasted little time getting into the spirit of the week as he acquired veteran right-shot defenceman Connor Murphy from the Chicago Blackhawks.

The trade makes sense for a lot of reasons.

Murphy is the true definition of a defensive defenceman. He won’t wow you with the puck on his stick, but he will help break up cycles and help the Oilers get the puck back. He is also a very good penalty killer.

The cost to acquire him, a second-round pick in 2028, was not high at all, especially since the Oilers got his contract retained down to $2.2 million.

All in all, this trade is looking like a win for the Oilers and Bowman likely isn’t going to stay quiet from here on out. He still has some assets that he could dangle in the coming days.

The expectation now is that the Oilers will turn their attention to their forward group, but it’s still unclear if they’re going to look for a third-line centre or potentially another scoring winger. The nice part about the way the Oilers forward group is currently constructed is that they have a lot of versatile pieces in their lineup, so they really aren’t pigeon-holed into having to just shop for one specific position.

If a top-six winger falls into their lap, they could slide Ryan Nugent-Hopkins down to the third line. If there is a third-line centre that is available, then they could slot him into their bottom-six and keep their top-six intact. The only hurdle that still........

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