The Edmonton Oilers have officially announced that they have re-signed defenseman Connor Murphy to a five-year, $20.5 million deal.

Rumors started swirling over the weekend that the Oilers were close to inking Murphy to an extension, and on Monday afternoon, word leaked that the deal was official.

According to the Oilers, the team has signed Murphy to a five-year extension for $4.1 million per season.

“MURPH. The #Oilers have signed defenceman Connor Murphy to a five-year contract with an AAV of $4.1 million,” the Oilers wrote on X.

Connor Murphy is a Solid Defenseman

Murphy spent the first 12.5 years of his NHL career with the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes and the Chicago Blackhawks, playing for two bad teams and appearing in only 9 playoff games over that span.

At this year’s trade deadline, the Oilers sent a second-round pick to the Blackhawks for Murphy, and it turned out to be a solid move for the team, as he is a reliable two-way defenseman who is solid defensively and can chip in a few points here and there.

After the season was over, Murphy made it clear that he was open to re-signing with the Oilers. A day after the team announced a five-year contract extension for forward Jason Dickinson, the team has now done the same for Murphy, as they locked up both the players they got from Chicago last year in trades.

Oilers Next Moves

Now that Murphy has been signed, the Oilers’ next move is to clear cap space by trading away longtime defenseman Darnell Nurse.

Though Nurse has been a good soldier in Edmonton for many years, the team and player are headed towards a divorce, mainly because he is not worth his $9.25 million salary.

The Oilers may have to retain some salary on Nurse to ship him out of town, given his big contract. But the team is going to trade him this summer, one way or another.

Next, the Oilers also need a new head coach. Mike Babcock is said to be the choice, but that hiring has not been made official just yet, though it may be in the coming days. The NHL recently cleared Babcock after an investigation into alleged prior incidents with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023, and found nothing that should keep him from being hired, so it looks like the Oilers will make that hire official soon now that they’ve signed Murphy and Dickinson.