The Edmonton Oilers had a tumultuous past season and have a laundry list of players who were put in positions where they couldn’t succeed or who underperformed relative to their paycheques. The list of underachievers in Edmonton isn’t short, and no player dominates that discussion more than defenseman Darnell Nurse.
Nurse is perhaps the most polarizing player in Edmonton, which is really saying something for a team that also employs goaltender Tristan Jarry. But Nurse’s cap hit and poor play have continued to dominate the discussion around the Oilers for good reason. That said, if there ever was a time for the Oilers to move on from Nurse, this summer could be it.
Obviously, trading Nurse and his $9.25MM salary is a tall order. Couple that with his no-move clause and the four years remaining on the deal, and trading him becomes even more impossible. Then there are concerns about Nurse’s play, which hasn’t been great for a few years and took another dramatic drop this year.
The 31-year-old posted his worst offensive numbers in nearly a decade, and his underlying numbers were well below his career averages. Not to mention that he often appeared a step slow, both with and without the puck, leading to him turning the puck over at an alarming rate and taking a pile of penalties when he was caught out of position.
Despite all of these obstacles, this offseason might be Edmonton’s best opportunity to unload most of Nurse’s contract, or at the very least find a move that is palatable for them to move on from the player they selected seventh overall back in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.
The reality is that Nurse is still an NHL defenseman, but in Edmonton, enormous expectations are placed on him because of his inflated contract. Now, no one should feel sorry for Nurse, as he played the contract game, rolled the dice on a bridge deal and played himself into his massive payday.
But patiently waiting for that contract, Nurse inadvertently put himself in a position to be miscast as a number-one defenseman, which he is not. In fact, at this stage of his career, Nurse is a high-end third-pairing defender on a good team, where he doesn’t have to play against the opponent’s top players, and he can get away with some of the issues in his game a little bit more without being constantly exposed.
But very few teams can pay that talent $9.25MM a year, and the ones that could don’t want to pay an aging, declining defender that kind of money when they are stockpiling younger assets. Mix all of those concerns with Nurse’s contractual control of the situation, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Most contending teams won’t trade for Nurse for the reasons stated above. The teams that would trade for him likely aren’t contenders, and he isn’t likely to waive the clause for them.
But this summer, there is more salary-cap growth, and for the first time in what feels like ages, there are teams with significant money available and very few free agents to sign. There are also many teams looking at their back end and believing they need to upgrade that defensive unit.
Most teams will try to do so by trading for higher-end options such as Bowen Byram or entering free agency to sign a Darren Raddysh, but so few of those options exist, and the prices will be exorbitant. There will be teams who strike out in the market but need defensemen, who may pivot and look to the secondary market for players like Morgan Rielly and, yes, Nurse. This dynamic will likely turn an unmovable contract into one that is simply tough to fully absorb.
Despite the warts in his game, Nurse can play a lot and still has good size, decent skating and durability. He’s an NHL defenseman who is miscast in a lineup because of his salary and the lack of better options around him.
If he were moved to a team with more defensive depth that could deploy him in a more sheltered role, that would be ideal, and he would serve as suitable short-term insurance if they were to lose a top-four defenseman.
For the Oilers, it is now or never to make the move, since they badly need the cap space to chase another goaltender and try to build a better lineup around Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Couple the Oilers’ desperation with the growing salary cap and the league-wide need for defensemen, and you have a recipe for a Nurse move, if he wants it to happen.
Oilers fans need to be cautious and temper their expectations for a Nurse trade. It is unlikely the team will hit a home run in a trade for an undesirable player, as the Penguins did when they dumped Jarry on the Oilers for three assets.
The primary objective in a Nurse trade is to create as much cap relief as possible to allow for better roster balance and the reallocation of those financial resources.
Edmonton has several options for trading Nurse. They could dump him along with other assets to incentivize a team to acquire him and his contract. The Oilers could also flip Nurse for another player with a bad contract, such as Jonathan Huberdeau or Morgan Rielly.
While the door is open for a Nurse trade, it still feels like a long shot given a litany of factors. But unlikely is very different from impossible, and there have been moments over the last few years when a Nurse trade looked impossible.
This summer represents the best opportunity for Edmonton to trade Nurse, and it comes at a time when they need to hit multiple home runs as they try to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals.
When breaking down Nurse’s career, And, Current contract it’s important to note who signed him to the dreadful deal, I don’t see Ken Holland’s name mentioned.
Are you kidding me? Who is going to have anything to do with that contract? I don’t care what you throw with it even supposing they HAD anything to throw with it, Which they don’t. They’re going to have to buy him out to get rid of him. Just get it over with. Geez
I would go the buyout route. If you go bad contract for bad contract like Huberdeau or Rielly, you’re still in a bad spot with a bad contract.
Both seem to provide more value at their respective cap hits. Huberdeau is a top 6 forward and Rielly is far cheaper.
Is there a GM only slumber party coming up where they’re all getting hammered?
Just proves that Stan Bowman and reality have nothing in common if he even thinks that is possible. I know he wasn’t there at the time but I’m quite sure he will do something just as stupid one day for Edmonton. Just wait for it.
Chicago still needs to get to the cap floor and Bedards contract will get them close but Nurse’s contract would insure it! 😄
Hawks are at 63 million and will re sign Mikhayev at around 5 million or more. With the Floor being 76 million whether they sign Bedard or not they only need like 8 more million. They don’t need that nightmare. Nobody does. Sooner the morons in Edmonton figure that out the better. They could sign Trouba or somebody like him and a decent B/U Goalie and they’re there. But they should shoot higher but I don’t know who’s available yet.
Nurse has a full no-movement clause and he and McDavid are BFFs. You think he’s going to accept a trade to Columbus to be their third pairing bruiser?
They have no choice but to plan for him to be on the roster. This is why they need Cassidy, they need someone who will deploy players in he right roles with no regard for contract or sentimentality.
Going to have to find a team that plans on sitting at the bottom next season, if Nurse doesn’t waive just sit him in the press box regularly til he decides he is willing to open up his trade list, the Rags did that with Trouba and threatened to waive him to the AHL before the Ducks swooped in and acquired him
Trouba’s NMC expired when he was traded.
Nurse mcdavid and loose change for nylander Reilly domi and the 1st pick.
With Trotz and Treliving out, there’s are no GMs incompetent enough to acquire this albatross.
And therein lies Bowman’s problem. He needs to find a GM who is more incompetent than himself, but there are none. He is the worst in the NHL.
winner winner chicken dinner for Jolly Roger. He’s hit the nail on the head, Stan Bowman is the WORST gm in the NHL.
This article feels 12 months premature. His full NMC changes to a 10-team list on June 1, 2027. That’s the time to do it, when the next GM isn’t hamstrung.
Nurse is a cheap shot punk
Nurse makes TEN TIMES what teams want to be paying their third-pairing defensemen. No one, but no one, is going to trade for the contract of a 31 year old guy making All-Star money for third-line production … that’s a sure way to poison a locker room. The contract is also damn-near buyout proof; it’s heavily frontloaded with bonus money, and the cap relief would be less than $4 MM over four years. Edmonton would have to hand over a 1st rounder as the bribe to take that contract, and even next year, the bottom feeders likely to bite are the ones who’ll wind up being on that 10-team list.
Nope, this is Example #437 of GMs Being Stupid. I swear if I was the owner of a hockey team, I’d have a GM garrotted who sought to hand out more than a four year deal to ANYone.
Hot on the heels of the Timo article, I’m concerned Josh might purposefully be chasing clicks. This model will piss off the long term user base.
Wow, they want us to click on the articles? If you get pissed of at this stuff, it might be time to step outside.
If it’s something people have a strong opinion about, it won’t piss them off as it offers them an opportunity to express that opinion.
Identifying subjects that people have a strong opinion about is a skill that a site like this one needs to become popular. Engineering bogus stories to put the subjects into circulation is somewhat cheap but acceptable to most, so long as it’s not too egregious.
But chasing clicks he does, because it’s what his job is about.
@ Jolly Roger. Yeah, it’s been obvious for months that this author writes opinion pieces solely designed to drive engagement to the website. I personally think some of the ideas are flimsy at best, but if the ad revenue helps keep people employed in this economy, who am I to complain? And if the occasional piece generates meaningful discussion among hockey fans in the comments, even better. Which this one seems to have done.
I hope no other GM is willing to help Scotty’s kid and Nurse continues to flounder in EDM
Nurse & Issac Howard to the Kings for Cody Ceci & Trevor Moore.
Thoughts???
This article is at the 5th grade level, at best.
“The reality is that Nurse is still an NHL defenseman.” Then describing he can skate and play a lot?
And “paycheques?”
It’s hard finding hockey writers but this post, which is comical based on the premise, is just short of NY Post quality.
“Paycheques” is the the non-American, rest-of-the-English-speaking-world spelling of the word. It is perfectly acceptable in journalistic usage.