On yesterday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Jeff Marek speculated on a trade scenario for the Edmonton Oilers to move on from Darnell Nurse. Marek suggested that San Jose, known to be seeking a defenseman, could offer up one of their several young forwards, such as Collin Graf in a hypothetical deal.
Western Conference foes who could eventually meet in the playoffs, it begs the question if San Jose would do such a favor to take on Nurse’s $9.25MM cap hit, running through the 2029-30 season, when he’ll be 35. Not only that concern, it would simultaneously give the Oilers a real asset such as Graf. Somewhat quietly amidst a group full of more widely recognizable young talent, the 23-year-old Graf tucked away 21 goals last year for the Sharks, a huge step for the undrafted 6’1” winger who enters restricted free agent status this summer and will command a big increase from his entry level deal.
With declining metrics in terms of possession, and no longer likely to break the 40-point mark in a season again anytime soon, Nurse leaned more into a physical role, surpassing the 100 penalty minute mark for the first time. What’s going for the 30-year-old is that he is highly durable, playing in all 82 games and eating minutes at just under 21 a night. Only Dmitry Orlov and Mario Ferraro skated more for the Sharks this year in that metric.
In theory, Nurse presents an upgrade over Ferraro, but by no means is the longest tenured Shark a top 10 highest paid blueliner in the league, allowing San Jose to allocate those funds elsewhere. The team will have over $14MM to burn with practically their entire defense core hitting free agency this summer, but General Manager Mike Grier will be cautious as he puts the finishing touches on a rebuild which is set up for a decade of noise ahead.
Elsewhere across the league:
- With breakout goaltender Dan Vladař showing preference to remain in Philadelphia long term, Anthony DiMarco of The Daily Faceoff looked into what an extension would look like. A huge part of their resurgence, Vladar’s 2.42 goals against average was third in the entire league this year. One has to go back to 2019-20 as the last time the Flyers got that level of goaltending, coming from who was a second-year-pro Carter Hart, results the now Golden Knight has been chasing ever since. Luckily for the Flyers, they’ll retain the 28-year-old for another year at his steal of a $3.35MM AAV, but the sooner they handle business for the future, the better. DiMarco reported that the Flyers would be willing to give him five years of term with a contract hovering around $6MM per season. If it gets done, the former Flame would join the likes of Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett as the longest signed players on the team, fully signifying their belief that he’s the netminder they’ve been long searching for.
- The Colorado Avalanche are turning back to Scott Wedgewood tonight for Game 1 against Vegas, confirmed by the team. MacKenzie Blackwood meanwhile, of whom he’s split duty with all year, started the last two games of the previous round against Minnesota. However, he was yanked after the first period after letting in three goals of the deciding contest, as Wedgewood backstopped the team to a comeback victory. With all respect to the 33-year-old, whose breakout campaign has shattered his career best statistics across the board, Wedgewood had to stop just seven shots in his 43:14 versus the Wild one week ago. Still, clearly the switch panned out, and he’ll lead the Avs out for the Conference Finals tonight. It’s new territory for Wedgewood who prior to this year had just four playoff appearances across his whole career, none of which were starts.
Have no idea why the Sharks would make that trade.
As an oiler fan I sure wish they would, but I too don’t see a world where SJ would take on that dumpster fire of a contract
@Gbear – Sounds like Marek’s consulting with his “insider source”, aka The Cigar Store Mascot again. And he must think that Mike Grier is just as dumb as Bowman. Strike two for Marek. If Mike were to have that kind of lapse of judgment, though, he’d need a ticket out of town on the 3:10 to Yuma.