The Edmonton Oilers strengthened the left side of their blue line on the first day of free agency, signing defenceman Ryan Shea to a five-year, $20 million contract.

Oilers fans have plenty of reasons to be excited about Shea. The defenceman is coming off a season where he tallied 35 points, the 14th-most among NHL blueliners, while finishing with a steady plus-minus rating of 30. As Shea begins his next chapter in Oil Country and looks to carry over that same steadiness, here are five little-known facts you may not know about the Oilers’ newest D-man.

Shea continues family legacy in professional hockey

When Shea joined the NCAA in 2016-17, he followed in the footsteps of his father, who also played college hockey from 1984-88.

His father, Dan Shea, played at Boston College for four seasons, and as the Huntington News mentioned in 2019, was “a Boston College legend.” During his four seasons with the Eagles, Dan played in 155 regular-season games, recording 190 points (69 goals and 121 assists).

Dan was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1987 NHL Supplemental Draft, but never suited up for the club.

After college, he played professionally in the British Hockey League (Ayr Bruins/Raiders and Peterborough Pirates), where during the 1988-89 season, he tallied 112 points in 24 games (52 goals and 60 assists) and briefly in the ECHL (Winston-Salem Thunderbirds).

Shea’s hockey journey didn’t begin as a defenceman

While the Oilers locked up Shea to solidify their defence corps for the next five seasons, his hockey journey didn’t begin on the blue line.

In an interview with the Huntington News in 2019, it was revealed that Shea started playing hockey as a forward:

“I was a different player when I was a forward,” Shea said. “I was kind of laid back and more of that third-line type person up front. My dad wasn’t too happy when I made that switch because he was a forward and he didn’t like me back there, but after a couple years on the blue line, he saw that........

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