Ryan Shea cashed in on July 1, inking a five-year, $20 million contract with the Edmonton Oilers, blowing past his career earnings previously of just over $5 million.
The 29-year-old former Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman is far from complacent, though, with the opportunity to push for a Stanley Cup in his new home.
“I think from the start of free agency, this is the team me and my agent were talking to,” Shea told Derek Van Diest of NHL.com. “When he first told me Edmonton, my eyes lit up because after getting to the playoff for the first time in my career in Pittsburgh, it’s literally the best hockey and probably the funnest hockey I’ve ever played.
“Edmonton is known for their success, and they obviously have high-calibre players and they know how to win and know how to get to that point in the season, so I’m excited. As a competitor, all you want to do is win and battle it out for the best trophy.”
Shea played his first full year in the NHL last season with the Penguins, recording six goals and 35 points in 80 games and was plus-30 while averaging 18:53 of ice time. He had never previously played in more than 39 games in a season.
Shea added an assist in six playoff games while averaging 16:50 of ice time before his team was eliminated in the first round.
Drafted 121st overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015, Shea has spent his entire three-season career with the Penguins, recording nine goals and 31 points in 150 career games.
In Edmonton, he will find a role on a blueline that is now without longtime Oiler Darnell Nurse who was traded to the San Jose Sharks as Shea joined the team last week.
Shea’s $4 million cap hit is tied with veteran Mattias Ekholm for the fourth-highest among defencemen on the team, just behind Connor Murphy at $4.1 million. Evan Bouchard is by far the highest-paid member of the group with an average annual value of $10.5 million, with Jake Walman second on the team at $7 million.
The 6-foot-1, left-shot defenceman is coming off a one-year, $900,000 contract, the fourth straight one-year deal he played under after the expiration of entry-level contract.
“I’ve been taking one-year, two-year type of deals and just betting on myself, and it obviously it ended up going well because I believed in myself,” Shea said. “But this is a whole different animal. You’re going to be here for five years, and you have a chance to win the Cup and it’s about just getting in there, being a good teammate and performing on the ice, and I’m ready to do that.
“You’re going into a new locker room, so you want to go into camp ready to go and show all the guys and the coaching staff that I’m not messing around.”
The Oilers will begin a new chapter this season under head coach Mike Babcock. Kris Knoblauch was fired in May after a first-round playoff exit that followed two straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final.
Shea is one of the most significant additions to the Oilers roster this summer, along with goaltender Frederik Andersen, who inked a one-year deal worth up to $2.8 million.
Edmonton largely focused on keeping its roster together ahead of July 1, re-signing Murphy and Jason Dickinson on five-year deals before bringing back Kasperi Kapanen and Max Jones on one-year contracts.
The pressure appears to be on for the Oilers to find success as Connor McDavid entersthe first season of a two-year,$25 million extension signed last summer with the threat of unrestricted free agency looming again in 2028.
