Walman, who was acquired from the San Jose Sharks at the Deadline by the Oilers, made a strong impression with an assist on Zach Hyman's first of two goals against the Stars before flattening fellow No. 96 Mikko Rantanen with a hard check coming over the Dallas blue line.
Walman possesses great skating, a good first pass and the ability to play the right side as a left shot, which made for a strong pairing with Darnell Nurse that could make for a strong defensive duo when Mattias Ekholm and John Klingberg return to the fold from minor injuries.
"I thought that was a heck of a start," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "The pass that he made on the Hyman goal, just the composure in breaking the puck out. In the second period, he had that big hit, was walking the blue line and getting pucks through. There's so much that we liked about his game. And, you know, sometimes you as a player, you have that adrenaline and you're really excited about that one.
"I think we'll see a lot of play like he did tonight."
Knoblauch says he wants every one of his blueliners to play alongside one another down the stretch before fully settling on specific pairs, though he wants to make sure there's a puck mover in each of them.
"I think it's important to get the puck up into those guys' hands, especially when Leon and Connor are on the ice because they're as dynamic and dangerous as anybody in the NHL," Knoblauch said. "So we want to put them in a position so they can play to their strengths. To do that, you need puck-moving defencemen and obviously, those two are good at it.
"We have a lot of options, which is nice. He hasn't played much on the right side, but for a guy that hasn't played much on the right side, he looked pretty good at it. So there's quite a good chance that those two are a regular pair [Nurse and Walman], but I wouldn't say that it's something that it's set."
