Oilers' New D-Man Grows On Effective Pair With Kulak: 'He's Gotten Better Ever Since Training Camp'

A new city and a new team.

The 2024-25 NHL season represents a new start for Ty Emberson as he looks to find his footing in the Edmonton Oilers' defensive pairings. He was one of the main pieces in a trade that sent him to Edmonton, with Cody Ceci going to the San Jose Sharks this past off-season.

Coming to the Oilers is a new start that allowed the 24-year-old to get his first crack at calling a Canadian market home. He's been able to quickly see how much Edmonton fans want to continue their run of success as he becomes part of one of the team's more stable defensive pairings with Brett Kulak.

"I mean, you look at the attendance night in and night out, there's always a lot of fans here, and they're all passionate about the game of hockey, which is awesome," Emberson said. "We just need to go out there and get them some more wins."

While his first couple of games may not have been picture-perfect, including a couple of healthy scratches, being paired with Kulak has started to yield results.

Edmonton's back-end pairing of Emberson and Kulak is second in Corsi-for percentage at 5-on-5 (55.74 percent) and all strengths (54.26 percent) among pairings on the team that have been on ice for over 70 minutes this season, per naturalstattrick.com. Emberson's high-danger Corsi-for percentage is also fourth-best among Edmonton blueliners at 60.71 percent at all strengths.

Emberson's willingness to take advice while excelling in various aspects of his game has impressed his main partner on the back end.

"I think he's a really good player," Kulak said. "He's still young, and his eyes are open, his ears are open, and every day, he wants to learn more and more. I think he's gotten better ever since training camp, and he's got a couple of games under his belt.

"He's got a lot of really good tools. He plays hard defensively. He skates good. He makes good passes, and he's got a hard shot."

Out of all the attributes Emberson has brought to the roster, in Kulak's mind, his ability to move his feet has stood out among the others.

"His biggest strength is his skating," Kulak said. "So much of the game is skating now, especially as a D-man. You want to cover ground and cover ice and take away time and space and recover loose pucks quick, and I think he's done a really good job of that is what I've noticed about him."

Emberson's ability to learn from Kulak and Darnell Nurse this season has benefited his development in many ways.

"It's been good," Emberson said. "Obviously, both of those guys have played a lot of games in the NHL combined, so I think just picking up on little things that I can get from them, whether it's off the ice, on the ice, on the bench, after games, and just watching them and understanding how they've had so much success in this league."

Hockey Hall of Famer and assistant coach Paul Coffey has been another source of information for Emberson, especially regarding offensive development and where next he can help this team.

"Trying to just contribute and joining the rush when I can," Emberson said. "Me and (Coffey) always talk about having good gaps and getting in the play right away and just setting your gap before they can really attack you."

As Emberson continues to find his footing in Edmonton, an upcoming task is to tackle Edmonton's food scene and one of its well-known dishes in the donair.

"I'm all for new options," Emberson said. "I'll try a donair at some point."

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