The Oilers may have picked up a useful piece in Shakir Mukhamadullin when they moved Darnell Nurse and cleared his full cap hit, but one number is giving Edmonton Journal scribe Kurt Leavins pause.
Mukhamadullin’s giveaways per 60 minutes of play, or GvA/60, sat at 4.27. Leavins pointed to that line while laying out why the 6-foot-4 defenseman is one of Edmonton’s wild cards heading into the season.
“One of the Oilers wild cards entering this season is newly acquired Defender Shakir Mukhamadullin. I get the attraction of the 6’4 D-man who can skate as well as he can.
But a couple things from last season’s stats with San Jose make me want to see more before I proclaim much. One is the 61 giveaways in 50 games.
Two are the 35 Hits in those same 50 GP.”
That giveaway rate placed Mukhamadullin second on the Sharks in GvA/60, behind only Macklin Celebrini, while he averaged a little more than 17 minutes per game. Among defensemen across the league, the number ranked 36th-worst. With roughly 200-plus NHL defensemen in a season, that puts him in the rough range of the top 15-20% for giveaway rate, which is not the kind of company Edmonton wants to see.
There is some context, though. Mukhamadullin has played just 83 NHL games, so the hope is that these are the sorts of rookie-heavy numbers that come with learning on the fly.
He also was not carrying huge defensive loads or being asked to handle major zone-exit responsibility, which makes the turnovers stand out a little more. He was still playing meaningful minutes, just in a limited role.
Another layer here is usage. Defensemen who push the puck, make more breakout passes, and try to create rush chances usually pile up more giveaways than players who simply move it off the glass. If Mukhamadullin was used as a puck mover in San Jose’s rebuild, that could help explain some of the totals.
What makes the stat line more concerning is that his turnover rate actually got worse last season than it had been in 2024-25. He posted a 3.65 Gva/60 in 2024/25 and played more minutes per game then.
That mark made him 95th worst, so last season represented a step backward in puck security. On the flip side, it does show he has been better before.
Whether this turns into a real issue in Edmonton is still up in the air. Spencer Stastney, who Mukhamadullin will be competing with for a job, had worse numbers for the Oilers in 2025-26. It also highlights how effective Ty Emberson (2.84) and Brett Kulak (1.96) were in this area.
Mukhamadullin also does not bring much physicality, as his Hits/60 ranking sat 174th among defensemen. The encouraging part is that he kills penalties and does it reasonably well.
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