How the Oilers arrived at the Darnell Nurse dilemma

We’re approaching the five-year anniversary of Darnell Nurse’s eight-year, $74 million contract with the Oilers, and the defender’s $9.25 million cap hit remains one of the organization’s biggest roster questions.

Selected with the seventh overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft when Craig MacTavish was general manager, Nurse inked two different two-year bridge deals with Peter Chiarelli and Ken Holland at the helm.

The second of those two-year pacts, signed in February of 2020, positioned Nurse to walk right into unrestricted free agency at the age of 27. Instead, after the first season of the deal, the pandemic-shortened 2021 campaign, Holland gave the 6-foot-4 defender an eight-year extension.

Stan Bowman pushed the first domino that ultimately set the market rate for high-minute defencemen earlier in the summer.

In July of 2021, after moving Duncan Keith to Edmonton, the Blackhawks acquired Seth Jones from the Blue Jackets and immediately signed him to an eight-year, $76 million contract. The following day, Colorado’s Cale Makar signed a six-year extension carrying a $9 million cap hit. Columbus also locked up Zach Werenski on a six-year deal worth $9.58 million annually a few days after trading Jones.

When free agency opened, Dougie Hamilton joined the Devils on a seven-year contract worth $9 million per season. By the time Nurse’s extension was finalized in August, the price point for high-minute defencemen had become clear.

Chiarelli and Holland both avoided committing long-term to Nurse during his restricted free agent years, and the Oilers ultimately paid market value to keep their homegrown blueliner.

Now several years into the contract, Edmonton is still searching for the right combination around Nurse, consistently cycling through partners in an effort to stabilize difficult defensive minutes and maximize his effectiveness in a top-four role.

Does he need to play with a puck-mover? A stay-at-home defender? Somebody who can clear the front of the net? Who is Darnell Nurse as an NHL defender? These aren’t questions a team wants to be asking about a $9.25 million player, but this is where the Oilers stand.

Acquired from Chicago ahead of this year’s trade deadline, Connor Murphy quickly became one of the more stable partners Nurse has had in recent years. After posting negative on-ice goal differentials with Jake Walman, Alec Regula, and Ty Emberson, Nurse put up an 11-6 goal differential over 294 minutes with Murphy at even strength.

Now Murphy is just over one month away from reaching unrestricted free agency. The 33-year-old veteran previously signed a six-year, $23.1 million contract with Arizona, followed by a four-year, $17.6 million extension after being traded to Chicago.

Without much experience playing meaningful playoff hockey deep into the spring, Murphy might be inclined to take a discount to stay with the Oilers. The veteran shutdown defender and penalty kill specialist might also want to wait to see what offers he gets from other contenders on the open market.

Regardless, if Murphy returns, the Oilers are likely looking at a second defensive pairing that costs them at least $14 million against the salary cap. Beyond those two, Edmonton also has $21.5 million invested in Evan Bouchard, Jake Walman, and Mattias Ekholm for 2026-27.

There’s nothing wrong with a pricey blueline if it’s among the league’s best, but it’s difficult to argue that the Oilers are getting bang for their buck on the back end. With a significant question mark in net and the need for help up front, Bowman will likely have to make several moves this summer to seriously improve Edmonton’s roster.

With the off-season still a few weeks away, Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin listed Nurse as one of the top 10 candidates to be traded as salary cap casualties.

“The Oilers simply must find a way. They barely have the cap space even to re-sign the UFAs and maintain the status quo on a roster Connor McDavid called average, and the goal is to get better. If it means 50 percent retention on Nurse’s AAV, Edmonton must consider anything that improves their Stanley Cup chances across McDavid’s two-year contract. Nurse would have to waive his NMC for any deal, of course, but after more than a decade in Copper and Blue, might he want a respite from the pressure cooker anyway?”

This isn’t the first time Nurse’s name has come up in trade discussion. Earlier this month, Jason Gregor noted on his Sports 1440 show that the Oilers have been open to the idea of moving the defender, even though the team’s leadership group doesn’t like the idea.

“People have talked about moving [on] from Darnell Nurse. I think people in the organization are open to it. The leadership group wasn’t overly open to it. So, when I hear people say, ‘Well, you’ve got to listen to your captain,’ well, to a point, because everybody has a bias. Great guy, they love him, I get all that. But if the bang for your buck isn’t there, it’s not there.”

Connor McDavid and Nurse go way back. The two won gold together with Team Canada at the World Juniors in 2015, then squared off in a memorable OHL playoff series that spring, with McDavid’s Erie Otters beating Nurse’s Soo Greyhounds in six games.

The Otters lost in the OHL Final to the Oshawa Generals, ending the phenom’s junior career. After the Oilers drew the golden ticket at the 2015 NHL Draft Lottery, McDavid and Nurse were teammates together as rookies the following season.

Over a decade later, McDavid and Nurse have made two trips to the Stanley Cup Final with the Oilers, but have yet to capture an elusive championship. With the captain entering a two-year contract at a team-friendly $12.5 million cap hit, the organization may eventually have to separate its emotional ties from the financial realities of the roster

McDavid has been an advocate of Nurse in the past, saying during the team’s 2024 playoff run that he’s a big part of the team’s culture because of the effort he gives. But Stuart Skinner also had the captain’s support, and the local goaltender still wound up getting traded.

“He’s a big piece of our room,” McDavid said of Nurse a couple of years ago. “Plus/minus, whatever, I know it’s a funny stat, but he gives us everything he’s got, and he always has for a long time.”

Of course, moving Nurse alone wouldn’t solve all of Edmonton’s problems. Replacing heavy NHL minutes is rarely simple, particularly for a team already thin on dependable defenders.

Even if the Oilers find a suitable trade for Nurse, who’s settled in Edmonton with a family, the 31-year-old has a no-movement clause in his contract. Nurse would effectively be able to choose where he goes, and there’s no indication he has any desire to leave.

Without much leverage, the Oilers would likely need to retain significant salary or take back another undesirable contract in order to move Nurse. Finding a comparable replacement on the back end would only complicate things further.

It’s also worth noting that familiarity breeds contempt. Nurse might not be the player the Oilers hoped when they selected him seventh overall, and he certainly isn’t the $9.25 million, top-pair defender they wanted him to be when he signed the contract five years ago, but he did help a team in a very difficult market reach back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals.

While Nurse’s play has often been polarizing, he’s largely been able to handle the pressure of playing in front of fans who only see the number $9.25 million when he’s on the ice.

“Sometimes I feel like I’ve been blamed for everything from a goal against to the traffic on Stony Plain,” Nurse said a few years ago. “So you have to be really cognizant of the pressure you put on yourself. There’s no one that’s gonna expect more out of me than me.”

There’s no simple answer for the Oilers when it comes to the Darnell Nurse situation.

They have an overpaid top-four defender who’s well-liked by his teammates and has settled in Edmonton. They also have a generational talent who turns 30 in January and still doesn’t have a Stanley Cup.

Maybe the team would miss his physical play and skating ability. Maybe they’d find the same sort of value from a much cheaper replacement.

The reality is that Stan Bowman doesn’t have a tremendous amount of time to think about it. Connor McDavid has given the Oilers two more years at $12.5 million, and the front office needs to give him a roster that can finally get the job done.