EDMONTON -- Kris Knoblauch made his point loud and clear when discussing the impact Jake Walman has made on the Edmonton Oilers.
“I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Jake, among others,” the Oilers coach said on Thursday.
“... Jake’s game was tremendous, especially missing [Mattias] Ekholm. We needed guys to step up in Ekholm’s absence, and he was one of those guys.”
Walman has been stepping up since being acquired by the Oilers in a trade with the San Jose Sharks on March 7 for a conditional first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and forward prospect Carl Berglund.
And like Knoblauch said, Walman needed to.
Just three days prior to the trade, Ekholm left in the third period of a 6-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks to be examined by medical staff. The 35-year-old defenseman would go on to miss 16 of the Oilers' final 21 regular-season games as well as the first 15 games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
During that stretch, Walman put up eight points (one goal, seven assists) in 15 regular-season games and four points (one goal, three assists) in 15 playoff games.
Now with Ekholm back in the lineup, Walman has continued to shine on the back end. He had two assists in the series-clinching 6-3 win against the Dallas Stars in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final on May 29, and another assist in a 4-3 overtime win against the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday.
“When we got Jake, we wanted a guy who was a puck-moving defenseman with agility who could give us a little more scoring,” Knoblauch said. “Yes, he gave us all that, but one thing I didn’t know about Jake was how many blocked shots he had (he leads the Oilers this postseason with 47). The first game he played with us he had about five or six, and last night he had four.
“He’s also physical, he had some big hits last night (three). So, a nice surprise. We knew we were getting a smart, good-skating defenseman with some offensive flair, a guy that can probably be on the first-unit power play if we needed that. But I didn’t know about his all-around game, and his defensive play has been really good.”
Adding to that praise, Walman’s versatility and adaptability has allowed Knoblauch to play him on both the left and right side with every other defenseman on the team.
“His role on this run has been very important,” Knoblauch said.
Important for the Oilers, and impactful for Walman himself, who had only played in one playoff game prior to this season. That came all the way back in 2020-21, when he was a rookie with the St. Louis Blues.
Now, he's three wins away from lifting the Stanley Cup.
“It lived up to the hype, for sure, for me, just dreaming about that,” Walman said of his first Stanley Cup Final game.
“... Tight margins out there, but just kind of playing in the moment, being ready for it, and I think we’re all putting our best foot forward. Every line, every guy in our room is dialed in and ready to go. It’s exciting. I think every game will be exactly the same.”
And for the Oilers, they are hoping Walman continues to deliver in exactly the same way.
“I wouldn’t want to be doing it with any other group of guys," Walman said. "They’ve been great to me since I’ve been here and I’m looking forward to keeping that going. Every game is going to be a challenge, especially against the team we’re playing.
“I watched a lot last year when these guys were playing (in the Stanley Cup Final), and I think we’re playing against a better Florida team than they did last year. I’ve felt it. It’s intense and we’re just putting our best foot forward.”
