The Oilers are focusing on strictly a short-term contract with restricted free agent defenseman Darnell Nurse, his agent Anton Thun told Postmedia’s Jim Matheson. Thun acknowledged that an offer has been made but their salary cap situation will restrict their options on this deal:
“They’ve sent us a proposal and we’ll see where that goes. I don’t see with their cap space being what it is that they can entice us with much term.”
Presently, the Oilers have just shy of $5MM in cap room, per CapFriendly with a total of 21 players under contract on their projected NHL roster. They may want to add another depth option and keep some money freed up for injury recalls or in-season trading so unless they want to move someone out to open up extra cap space, they’re restricted to a bridge contract.
The 23-year-old is coming off of his best NHL season which certainly helps his case. Nurse led all Edmonton defensemen in points last season with 26 (more than his previous two years combined) while seeing his playing time jump by more than five minutes a night compared to 2016-17.
At this point, the discussion is basically whether to sign him for one year or two. If they go with a one-year pact, he will be in this same situation again next summer but will have arbitration eligibility, something that isn’t the case now. On the flip side, with having Andrej Sekera, Adam Larsson, and Oscar Klefbom all back to full health to start the season, there’s a decent chance his playing time will dip which could offset the potential gain from having the ability to file for arbitration. Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the two sides work out a two-year agreement in the weeks to come with an eye on a much longer-term pact two summers from now.
I think a 2 year extension for Nurse wouldn’t hurt, maybe 2yrs $2.5-3.