This in from TSN’s Ryan Rishaug, his concerns about the Edmonton Oilers moving out veteran d-man Brett Kulak in the Stuart Skinner-Tristan Jarry trade, with those concerns shared by hockey analyst and former NHLer Rob Brown.
The Oilers also traded for Spencer Stastney, 25, a third-pairing Nashville d-man with a reputation for fast skating and decent puck-moving to help fill the hole left by Kulak’s absence.
“Spencer Stastney sounds like he’s a good young player,” Rishaug said on Oilers Now with Bryn Griffiths. “Sounds like he’s a developing young player and that as he continues to grow and learn and get more experience, he moves really well… But he’s not going to step in and just simply replace Brett Kulak. Like Brett Kulak is the absolute key to this and why I’m surprised the Oilers got there on this trade, to be honest with you.”
Rishaug continued: “Anybody analyzing this trade, if they don’t say Brett Kulak’s name in their first two sentences, doesn’t have it right. I’m telling you, Brett Kulak is a third-pairing defenseman during the regular season, and he turns into a Top 4 defenseman in the playoffs. Brett Kulak insulates you against Matias Ekholm, who’s aging and has had some injury issues… Remember last year in the playoffs when Ekholm was hurt? Remember how many minutes Brett Kulak slid in there and played? Brett Kulak is a stud and plays his best hockey in the playoffs. The Oilers have lost their insulation. If they run into injury troubles, they’ve lost some depth. They’ve watered down their blue line with this trade.”
Brown said something of the same on the Got Yer Back podcast, pointing out that Ty Emberson wasn’t good enough to play in the playoffs last year and that newcomer Alec Regula is something of an unknown. “I don’t think Regula has been as strong as Emberson as of late. I think Regula has struggled.”
Stastny is also an unknown, Brown said. “Maybe he will blossom when he comes to Edmonton. But again, unknown.”
As a result, Kulak will be missed. “You lost a certainty in Kulak at playoff time.”
My take
1. When it comes to the playoffs, Brett Kulak has indeed been strong-to-outstanding for the Oilers, not only consistently, even dramatically, improving his level of two-way performance from the regular season, but also taking on bigger and tougher minutes.
Rishaug and Brown aren’t imagining Kulak’s playoffs success.
It’s real and it’s been huge for the Oilers. It would have been swell to have him for the 2026 playoffs.
You can see Kulak’s playoff prowess in his excellent Grade A shots plus-minus metrics. He was the second best Oilers d-man in the playoffs last year after Evan Bouchard, and the fourth best in 2024 after Bouchard, Mattias Ekholm and Philip Broberg.
playoffs
2. At the same time Kulak is on an expiring contract, he’ll be 32 next month, and his play has dropped off so far this regular season. Edmonton already will have three 30-plus d-men next year in Ekholm, Darnell Nurse and Jake Walman. Most NHL d-men fall off a cliff in terms of play sometime in their early to mid-30s.
Would it really be wise to sign up Kulak to the four or five year deal at $5.0 million plus he could command this summer as a free agent?
On Oilers Now, insider Bob Stauffer noted: “I would say that Kulak might be the best defenseman available to the UFA right now. Seriously, he’s got to get at least as good a deal as Cody Ceci got. Okay, 4.5 million at minimum.”
Ceci just signed a four year deal at $4.5 million in Los Angeles, and now the cap is shooting up.
Edmonton could not afford to keep both Stuart Skinner and Brett Kulak on new deals, Stauffer said. “There was no way the Oilers were going to be able to keep the combination of the two of them, and now they’ve got Stastney at $820,000 for this year. They can probably get them extended on a bridge at $1.0 to 1$.25 (million) as a third pairing D-man. And they’ve made their bet with Tristan Jarry for the next three playoff runs.”
3. Former Oilers d-man Jason Strudwick was impressed with Stastny’s skating. “I have watched some video on this Stastney. He can really skate. He’s a really, really good skater.”
Stastny is a better skater than either Regula or Emberson, Strudwick said. He added Regula has been good with Nurse, and it’s critical for the Oilers to keep bringing along younger and less expensive players.
4. We might already be seeing a drop in Kulak’s play this year. He’s been solid on defence in a third-pairing role, as has Ty Emberson, but Kulak has provided little on the attack. Kulak’s rate of major contributions to Grade A shots is significantly down from last regular season and the season before.
dmen
5. Hey, I wish the Oilers could have traded for Jarry without having to give up Skinner and/or Kulak. But not to be. The two veterans were the only real options to be moved in order to make this deal work cap-wise, and in order for the Oilers cap situation to make more sense heading into the summer when both players would have been free agents.
6. Yes, the Oilers will miss Kulak in the playoffs. But the real issue in the playoffs isn’t the loss of Kulak, it’s the performance of Darnell Nurse, who has struggled in the playoffs four years in a row. His play has cratered each year compared to his level of play in the regular season. It’s become a major issue for the Oilers, a massive impediment blocking playoff success.
The key for the Oilers in the 2026 playoffs isn’t Kulak’s absence, it’s for Nurse to play a simple and nasty game, not chase the puck everywhere in an effort to dominate every play, as is his inclination under pressure. If Nurse makes good reads, if he were to even get better under pressure, Edmonton’s chances of winning the Cup would sky-rocket.
When he brings his ‘A’ game as he’s done the past ten games he’s a formidable and effective player, a more impactful player than Kulak.
7. As for the trade for Jarry, and picking him over Skinner, it’s a worthwhile bet. As top goalie analyst Kevin Woodley notes in InGoal magazine, Jarry is having a helluva season so far. “Though it is an admittedly small sample since, Jarry’s season to date with the Penguins was even better than the raw numbers, including a .909 save percentage that ranked 16th in the NHL, might suggest. Jarry went into last night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens seventh in adjusted save percentage at +2.5%, behind only Ilya Sorokin and Logan Thompson among goalies who had faced at least as many chances as him.”
8. There’s a huge amount of support for Stuart Skinner from many Edmonton Oilers fans, but also from the neutral observers who cover the team daily. They all come off as greatly impressed with Skinner’s calm and warm manner. Those who look at the goalie through the lens of analytics tend to be more bullish on the trade. I’m in that analytics camp. I see it as a decent bet by Stan Bowman mainly because I saw Skinner let in too many goals this year on saveable shots, and the same happened three years running in the playoffs.
At the Cult of Hockey
STAPLES: ‘We traded the wrong guys’: Hockey world reacts to Skinner, Kulak for Jarry trade