{"id":484327,"date":"2026-03-02T18:05:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=484327"},"modified":"2026-03-02T18:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:09:41","slug":"report-news-edmonton-oilers-chicago-blackhawks-trade-deadline-defenceman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/03\/02\/report-news-edmonton-oilers-chicago-blackhawks-trade-deadline-defenceman\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Oilers Acquire Help on the Blueline"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The news has just become official, after being reported earlier in the day. The Edmonton Oilers have acquired the services of Connor Murphy from the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/06\/01\/nhl-rumours-chicago-blackhawks-d-man-possible-trade-target\/\" target=\"_self\">Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> via trade. An important part of this trade is that the Blackhawks are retaining 50% of Murphy&#8217;s <a  href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/team\/edmonton-oilers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$4.4 million salary cap hit<\/a>. In return, the Hawks receive a 2028 second-round draft pick. Of note, Connor Murphy was ranked 11th on Chris Johnston&#8217;s Trade Board over at <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7079997\/2026\/03\/02\/nhl-trade-board-kadri-thomas-stamkos\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Trade call is not expected to be formally completed until later tonight, but EDM and CHI have agreed upon:<\/p>\n<p>To <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LetsGoOilers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#LetsGoOilers<\/a>:<br \/>D Connor Murphy (50% retained)<\/p>\n<p>To <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Blackhawks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Blackhawks<\/a>:<br \/>2028 EDM 2nd Round Pick<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/frank_seravalli\/status\/2028578477662978482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Blackhawks Trade Defenceman Connor Murphy to Oilers<\/h2>\n<p>The Oilers are the most cap-strapped team in the NHL with around just $11,000 in cap space. However, with Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) space (<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/janmama02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mattias Janmark<\/a>), and sending a waiver-exempt player to the AHL (<a  href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/howaris01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaac Howard<\/a>), along with buried salary now from <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mangian01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Mangiapane<\/a> clearing waivers, these moves would leave the Oilers with a more management amount. It should be just around $200,000 in cap space to work with.<\/p>\n<h3>The Oilers Get a Helping Hand<\/h3>\n<p>The struggles with defending their own zone are well known, with <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/jarrytr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tristan Jarry<\/a> taking a jab at the lack of defence in front of him before the Olympic break. Moreover, Murphy has the shut-down ability that the Oilers are looking for. He will likely find himself on the second-pairing with Darnell Nurse.<\/p>\n<h3>Chicago Deals UFA<\/h3>\n<p>The Chicago Blackhawks were likely not going to bring back Connor Murphy after his contract expired. Getting a future second-round pick was something that they likely weren&#8217;t expecting heading into the deadline. It&#8217;s a tidy piece of business by the Blackhawks, while retaining just $2.2 million for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Connor Murphy has 13 points in all 60 games for the Chicago Blackhawks, while playing around 15 minutes per game. Murphy has a 10 team no-trade clause. He has struggled in recent years with staying in the lineup, having not played more than 70 games in a season since 2022-23. Furthermore, the 32-year-old has 805 games of NHL experience in a shut down role. This is a big trade to get the week started, and the Oilers are hoping, a big trade for a run to the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">TRADE \ud83d\udd04 The <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Oilers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Oilers<\/a> have acquired defenceman Connor Murphy from the Blackhawks in exchange for a second-round selection in the 2028 NHL Draft. Chicago will retain 50% of Murphy&#39;s $4.4 million salary. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7fK3nkqFwx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/7fK3nkqFwx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EdmontonOilers\/status\/2028606322258870444?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Jamie Sabau-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The news has just become official, after being reported earlier in the day. The Edmonton Oilers have acquired the services of Connor Murphy from the Chicago Blackhawks via trade. An important part of this trade is that the Blackhawks are retaining 50% of Murphy&#8217;s $4.4 million salary cap hit. In return, the Hawks receive a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5657,"featured_media":445480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,27,4547,34,4548],"tags":[8278,1833],"class_list":["post-484327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oilers","category-blackhawks","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-2026-nhl-trade-deadline","tag-connor-murphy"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484327"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484341,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484327\/revisions\/484341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}