The Oilers will be keeping Ty Emberson in the fold a little while longer. The team announced that they’ve signed the defenseman to a two-year contract extension that will carry a cap hit of $1.3MM. The deal represents a small raise from his current $950K salary.
The 24-year-old was acquired from San Jose last offseason as part of the cap-clearing move that saw Cody Ceci sent to the Sharks. At the time, it looked like he was trending toward Group Six unrestricted free agency but as a result of reaching the 50-game mark (one he easily surpassed), he became eligible for restricted free agency with arbitration eligibility. He’ll bypass that with this contract as it buys out his two remaining RFA-eligible campaigns.
Emberson played in 76 games this season, becoming a full-fledged regular for the first time after being in and out of the lineup with San Jose last season in his first NHL campaign. He predominantly played on Edmonton’s third pairing, picking up 13 points, 97 blocked shots, and 125 hits while logging a little over 15 minutes a night of playing time. He was third on the Oilers in shorthanded playing time per game behind blueliners Mattias Ekholm and Jake Walman. With the former out for the first round and potentially longer, they’ll be counting on Emberson to take on an even bigger role on the penalty kill in their opening-round series against Los Angeles.
With this signing, Edmonton now has five of their regular blueliners signed for next season with Evan Bouchard in line for a significant raise as an arbitration-eligible RFA this summer. However, Emberson is just one of two regular defenders signed for the 2026-27 campaign, joining Darnell Nurse, meaning that the back end could be heading toward a shakeup a couple of years from noww.