The Edmonton Oilers blue line will have some added Russian flair to it this season.<\/p>\n
Shakir Mukhamadullin, acquired from the San Jose Sharks in the Darnell Nurse trade<\/a> earlier this summer, will arrive in Edmonton with his sights set on cracking the NHL roster<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Oilers will be the 24-year-old\u2019s third NHL organization, having been drafted by the New Jersey Devils in 2020 before being flipped to the San Jose Sharks in 2023 in the Timo Meier trade.<\/p>\n Going from San Jose to Edmonton is quite an adjustment, and Mukhamadullin opened up about the trade for the first time with Russian outlet Sports Express last week.<\/p>\n \u201cA [trade] could happen any day, any moment. So, I was basically prepared for it. A couple of days before, I was told it was a possibility. So, I wasn\u2019t expecting [a trade], but I was prepared for it,\u201d Mukhamadullin said in a translated transcript. \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t like changing teams at all. I\u2019ve played in the same place my whole life in Ufa, so it\u2019s unusual for me. But that\u2019s how it is now. And, I repeat, [I\u2019m] happy to go to Edmonton.<\/p>\n \u201cThe team is strong, currently fighting for the cup. And, again, I\u2019m really enjoying this challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n The former first-round pick opened up about feeling like San Jose had become a second home to him, alongside his native Russia, and that he had started to finally get fully comfortable in the city before being traded.<\/p>\n Mukhamadullin will now have to start from scratch in Edmonton, where he is actually anticipating the cold winters. He mentioned that the weather in the Alberta capital is similar to his hometown.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was in San Jose, I always longed for winter. Now, maybe I\u2019ll understand how nice it was there,\u201d Mukhamadullin admitted. \u201cThe weather in Edmonton is about the same as in Ufa, so everything\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Outside of weather, the young defender will also be entering a much different situation in Edmonton than in San Jose. The Sharks are an up-and-coming team in a non-traditional market while the Oilers are an established Stanley Cup contender with one of the most intense fan bases in the NHL.<\/p>\n Mukhamadullin seems to understand this and is looking forward to the change of pace.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a bit nervous, to be honest. But I\u2019m not afraid. I\u2019m not going there for the cushy conditions,\u201d Mukhamadullin said. \u201d\u00a0I\u2019m going to make the team, so I have to be prepared for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Edmonton inked Mukhamadullin to a two-year contract extension soon after trading for him. He mentioned that he had already declined a few contract offers from the Sharks before the trade, but was able to strike a deal rather quickly with the Oilers.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst, we negotiated with San Jose, then the trade happened\u2026 We reached an agreement with Edmonton pretty quickly. Which is what makes me happy now,\u201d Mukhamadullin said. \u201cThere were offers [from the Sharks]. Twice. We simply declined them; we couldn\u2019t reach an agreement, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n The journalist talking to Mukhamadullin, Alexey Shevchenko, brought up the idea of the new Oilers defenceman returning to the KHL on multiple occasions, but that was routinely brushed off.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers blue line will have some added Russian flair to it this season. Shakir Mukhamadullin, acquired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-867152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}