{"id":636204,"date":"2026-03-03T08:21:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T08:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/636204\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T08:21:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T08:21:21","slug":"blackhawks-trade-reliable-defenseman-connor-murphy-to-oilers-for-second-round-draft-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/636204\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackhawks trade reliable defenseman Connor Murphy to Oilers for second-round draft pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago Blackhawks traded defenseman Connor Murphy to the Edmonton Oilers on Monday in exchange for a 2028 second-round pick and half of Murphy\u2019s cap hit being retained.<\/p>\n

Murphy, 32, is a pending unrestricted free agent with a $4.4 million cap hit. The right-shot has been among the NHL\u2019s top shot-blockers in recent seasons, with 433 in 194 games over the past three seasons. He has four goals and 13 points in 60 games this season.<\/p>\n

As a physical defenseman, Murphy was expected to have plenty of suitors before Friday\u2019s NHL trade deadline, and Edmonton always made sense. Jake Walman had been playing on his off side on the Oilers\u2019 second pairing, so Murphy could slot in there, likely alongside Darnell Nurse. The Oilers have the 26th-ranked penalty kill in the league, while Murphy was an anchor of Chicago\u2019s league-leading PK, so he\u2019ll be an immediate upgrade there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say enough good things about Murph,\u201d Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said recently. \u201cHe\u2019s been great. First off, he\u2019s played really well. There was a time earlier in the year where he wasn\u2019t given lots of minutes; he\u2019s really had to earn it. He\u2019s really done a good job of earning ice time on a consistent basis. He\u2019s a huge reason why our kill has been really successful. He\u2019s defended really well; he\u2019s moved the puck well. He\u2019s shown some scoring. He\u2019s been physical, he\u2019s fought. All those things are an important part of leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oilers general manager Stan Bowman has a long history of reacquiring players he used to have. Bowman drew heavy criticism when he dealt away three-time Stanley Cup champion Niklas Hjalmarsson to Arizona in the summer of 2017 in exchange for Murphy, citing \u201ccost certainty,\u201d but it\u2019s a trade the Blackhawks clearly won in the long run. Murphy has been a consummate pro for Chicago for nine seasons, a steady defensive presence and well-liked leader in the locker room. With his departure, 24-year-old Alex Vlasic remarkably becomes the longest-tenured Blackhawks player.<\/p>\n

Murphy has entrenched himself in Chicago, both as a player and a resident of the area<\/a>. He married a local and became a pillar of the community, earning the Blackhawks\u2019 King Clancy Trophy nomination each of the last five seasons for his charitable work. Still, he knew a trade was likely coming, given his age and contract situation. He said that watching Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews square off on New Year\u2019s Eve as a Detroit Red Wing and Winnipeg Jet, respectively, drove the idea home for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you get toward an expiring contract, and you see what\u2019s happened to other guys, you don\u2019t shut it out as being impossible,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cYou try to protect your emotions by knowing anything could happen. I\u2019ve always looked at it that way \u2014 it\u2019s a business, and things could happen. Knowing that, you try to enjoy what you can when you\u2019re with your team. And hopefully, it\u2019s longer than shorter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks were hoping to put Murphy in the best situation possible if they were to deal him. They wanted to get him somewhere that wasn\u2019t just a fringe playoff team. When he was first dealt to the Blackhawks, they were coming off their three Stanley Cup wins, and Murphy thought he\u2019d finally get a taste of the playoffs. He could never have imagined he was joining the franchise at the start of its decline. Since then, the Blackhawks haven\u2019t qualified for a traditional playoff field, only squeaking into a play-in game during the 2020 bubble playoffs.<\/p>\n

In trading Murphy, the Blackhawks open a lineup spot for one of their young defensemen this season and beyond. The right side will likely be filled by Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel and Louis Crevier, who are all 24 or younger, for the remainder of the season and potentially for years to come. Vlasic, Matt Grzelcyk and Wyatt Kaiser have consistently been the Blackhawks\u2019 left-handed defensemen this season. Kevin Korchinski has been up from the AHL in the last few weeks and could see more NHL opportunities soon. He and Ethan Del Mastro will no longer be waiver-exempt next season and are expected to be in the NHL next season.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks also add another second-round pick to their pile. Chicago has three second-round picks in 2026, two in 2027 and now two in 2028. As the Blackhawks have accumulated draft assets, general manager Kyle Davidson has been more willing to package picks to move up in the draft. He did so last year when he traded two second-round picks to the Carolina Hurricanes to acquire the 29th pick, which he used to draft Mason West.<\/p>\n

After retaining half of Murphy\u2019s cap hit, the Blackhawks have one retention spot remaining. They agreed to retain $2.5 million of Seth Jones\u2019 cap hit through the 2029-30 season in last year\u2019s trade with the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Blackhawks traded defenseman Connor Murphy to the Edmonton Oilers on Monday in exchange for a 2028…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,17986,438,6,12,1106],"class_list":["post-636204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-draft","tag-basketball","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-nhl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116164276248481912","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}