{"id":493271,"date":"2026-07-01T17:49:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=493271"},"modified":"2026-07-01T17:49:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:49:41","slug":"ryan-shea-contract-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/07\/01\/ryan-shea-contract-oilers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers Add Defenceman for Five Years With the Shea Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/07\/01\/darnell-nurse-trade-sharks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the trade<\/a> of <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/n\/nurseda01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-01_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Darnell Nurse<\/a>, the Edmonton Oilers quickly moved to fill the left side of their defence by signing a defenceman. The <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/sheary01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-01_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Shea<\/a> contract is for five years and is worth an average annual value of $5 million. Probably getting him from the Pittsburgh Penguins was the biggest challenge, although they were able to make the dollar amount work. Let&#8217;s discuss what this means in Northern Alberta.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOB4ukO7VfN\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3659px; aspect-ratio: 3659\/2439;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p><span>Credit Image: \u00a9 Brian Mcwalters\/Cal Sport Media<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SHEASY \ud83d\udc4a<\/p>\n<p>The <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/Oilers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Oilers<\/a> have signed free agent defenceman Ryan Shea to a five-year contract with an AAV of $4.0 million. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FtSm3jOSr2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/FtSm3jOSr2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EdmontonOilers\/status\/2072427735323197456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 1, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/07\/01\/jack-roslovic-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">The Edmonton Oilers<\/a> Pad Their Defence<\/h3>\n<p>Trading away Darnell Nurse opened up a spot on the left side of their roster, which was quickly filled by Ryan Shea. A fourth-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, Shea spent years in the minor leagues before getting a chance in the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Appearing in 80 games across the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, Shea finally broke out in the 2025-26 season as a steady NHL defenceman. He will be missed on the Pens backend.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing in 80 games last season, Shea scored six goals and 35 points playing in mainly a third-pairing role, occasionally moving up to the second-pair when injuries occurred. He was incredibly reliable for the Penguins, with sterling advanced statistics and solid production. At 29, this has the potential to be a big season for the late bloomer.<\/p>\n<h3>The Oilers Have Identified a Trait They Like in Shea<\/h3>\n<p>For the Edmonton Oilers, they add another mobile defenceman who can munch minutes and play dependable hockey when injuries strike. With another $11 million in cap space, expect further moves over the course of the summer for the Cup or bust Oilers team. The Oilers needed to change something up, and it appears a pivot to a youth movement with Shea, but Devon Levi and Shakir Mukhamadullin acquisitions, too.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"gNai6xKxAM\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/07\/01\/sabres-oilers-trade\/\" target=\"_self\">The Edmonton Oilers Make A Goalie Trade With the Buffalo Sabres<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;The Edmonton Oilers Make A Goalie Trade With the Buffalo Sabres&#8221; &#8212; Last Word On Hockey\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/07\/01\/sabres-oilers-trade\/embed\/#?secret=s21RBrv7JD#?secret=gNai6xKxAM\" data-secret=\"gNai6xKxAM\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the trade of Darnell Nurse, the Edmonton Oilers quickly moved to fill the left side of their defence by signing a defenceman. The Ryan Shea contract is for five years and is worth an average annual value of $5 million. Probably getting him from the Pittsburgh Penguins was the biggest challenge, although they were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5231,"featured_media":444684,"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":[23,4547,34,4548],"tags":[192,8306],"class_list":["post-493271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oilers","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-darnell-nurse","tag-ryan-shea"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493271","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\/5231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493271"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493299,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493271\/revisions\/493299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}