Stan Bowman recognized the Edmonton Oilers needed more defensive-minded players last season when he acquired Connor Murphy and Jason Dickinson at the deadline.

He acquired Murphy for a second-round pick, and then landed Dickinson, and Colton Dach — a young player with tenacity and grit, and sneaky good hands around the net — for a first rounder and Andrew Mangiapane. By signing Dickinson to a five-year, $4 million AAV contract yesterday, Bowman made his first key player move of the offseason. He made this second today, signing Murphy for five years at $4.1 million, and Dach, who is a pending restricted free agent, will get a deal this summer as well.

Dickinson’s main impact in Edmonton will be improving the penalty kill, because when he’s on the ice, the penalty kill is okay, but when he’s off the ice, it has been a train wreck.

In Chicago, Dickinson was an elite penalty killer. He came to Edmonton and instantly became their most used penalty killer, averaging 1:51 per game. He was on the ice for three goals against after being acquired, and he and his penalty-killing linemate, Kasperi Kapanen, had the lowest goals against per hour on the Oilers. In the playoffs, Dickinson only dressed in four of the six games as he battled a fractured ankle, but in his four games, he was on for one goal against in 7:00 of TOI. In the six minutes and 38 seconds he wasn’t on the ice, the Oilers allowed four power play goals. He’s clearly must be an integral part of the penalty kill moving forward.

Chicago had the best penalty kill in the NHL, with Dickinson and Murphy making up half of their first penalty kill unit along with Alex Vlasic and Ilya Mikheyev. With Murphy and Dickinson signed, half of the Oilers’ first-unit penalty kill is secured. It will be up to Mike Babcock (I sense a press conference tomorrow to officially announce him) to figure out which forward and which D-man should join Dickinson and Murphy on the........

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