Edmonton Oilers Talk: “It was clear he was thinking about the business of his contract”

Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with excerpts from the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!

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The Cult of Hockey (David Staples)

“Locked and Loaded. Let’s Go”: Twitter reacts to Darnell Nurse’s new mega-deal

What message are you sending 29 & 97 if you don’t sign the 3rd core member of the Oilers? – Paul Almeida

BLH’s Thoughts: What message is Darnell sending to his fellow core members when they were willing to take haircuts in their most recent contracts? Nurse was very clear in his media avail that he was looking to make bank.

I just feel bad for RNH who probably took the biggest pay cut to stick around for the betterment of the team…

Theory: if the Oilers don’t trade Caleb Jones then Chicago doesn’t get Seth Jones and extend him $9.5M then Darnell Nurse’s number is $8M. – @worldhockeyrpt

BLH’s Thoughts: I never thought about this and it’s very interesting.

I don’t know how Nurse is going to age – some defencemen are really good in their early-to-mid 30s, some are really bad – but I’m always astonished that well-paid NHL GMs sign off on these ‘if the deal goes bad, you’re hooped’ nightmare contract structures. – Jonathan Willis

BLH’s Thoughts: Times have changed with regards to the kind of shape elite players get in and stay in throughout their careers. Gym rats like Nurse most likely will have a more delayed downtrend to their careers and since Darnell’s physical game has tamed down a bit, I see him as a top-pairing defenseman through to the end of this new contract unless Philip Broberg turns into the next Niklas Lidstrom…

Nurse is overrated but he was going to be a UFA and some team was giving him that money ($9.25 mil AAV) anyway. Oilers had to lock him up, especially since neither Bouchard nor Broberg are close to being top-4 NHL’ers.
He may not be your classic No. 1 but he had a good year. – Steve Kournianos
Nurse’s new contract raise eyebrows around the league. He’s a very good defenseman but the overall consensus is the Oilers overpaid to keep him in Edmonton. – Lyle Richardson (Spector’s Hockey)
The minute you start paying players based on them “wanting to stay” is the minute you start to look for new players. Did Nurse want to stay in Edm or did he want a massive overpay? I wonder what it was! If Nurse “wanted to stay in Edm” he would have taken something like 7 mill at 4 years to give the team room to move and then he gets paid once the cap pops again. – @DKingBH

BLH’s Thoughts: Dennis makes a really good point, did Nurse want to stay in Edmonton or did he want the big ticket? There’s no doubt in my mind, even if Nurse saw some regression in his game on a 4yr deal with $7M/yr, he would’ve made at least that if not more on a deal he could’ve sailed into the sunset on because the salary cap would be more.

One year where he shoots double his previous full-season mark and plays 58% of his minutes with 97 and here we are… – @JFreshHockey
I acknowledge he’s not a perfect player, that he’s got significant holes in his defensive game that he still needs to address, most notably his defensive reads in his own zone. – David Staples

BLH’s Thoughts: A player who still has significant holes in his game to work out CANNOT be paid $9M/yr. That is ELITE money and aside from his time on ice, Nurse doesn’t do anything at an elite level right now. That said, he’s still quite young and I believe he can develop into an elite defender akin to Alex Pietrangelo.

We can’t overlook one huge intangible — that to keep a team together in Edmonton, the stronger the ties between the top players, the better. Nurse, Draisaitl and Connor McDavid are said to be a tight group. Having them all on long-term deals gives hope that the Oilers will stay together long enough to reach their full potential as a team. – David Staples

BLH’s Thoughts: Is it me or is there an overabundance of fear permeating out of Edmonton? I feel like a lot of people are afraid of things happening three or four years down the road, like Leon Draisaitl leaving or Connor McDavid walking away. So what? Who cares if that happens? That is their choice and the circle of life will continue, will it not?

Let’s concentrate on what’s happening now and leave the future to itself. No sense in creating anxiety when it doesn’t need to be created.

Oilersnation (Zach Laing)

A full breakdown of Darnell Nurse’s new contract

Darnell Nurse inked his brand new deal on Friday signing a massive eight-year, $74-million contract that will likely keep him in Edmonton Oilers colours his entire career.
Year 1 – $12-million salary
Year 2 – $10.4-million salary
Year 3 – $12-million salary
Year 4 – $10-million salary
Year 5 – $2-million salary, $6-million signing bonus
Years 6-8 – $1.2-million salary, $6-million signing bonus
The entire length of the contract carries a no-movement clause and in the final three years of the deal, Nurse will provide a 10-team no-trade list.
If Edmonton wished to buy out the final year(s) of his deal in an absolutely worst-case scenario move, they would incur cap hits virtually equal to his current AAV
At the end of the day, the Oilers didn’t have much choice but to sign Nurse to this deal.
It’s worth noting, too, that the NHL’s cap, according to The Nation Network and Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, is expected to see incremental yearly increases of $1-million until 2026-27, when the cap is expected to rise to $91.4-million. That expected jump in the cap lines up directly with Nurse’s fifth year of his new contract when his signing bonus’ kick in and the added flexibility will surely help the team.

BLH’s Thoughts: A lot of folks are claiming that if the Oilers didn’t sign Nurse this summer to that deal that he would’ve left via free agency and “good luck replacing him”, but I don’t know if that’s really true.

Do we really believe that a trade couldn’t be worked out for a guy that we’ve been told for a good six months loves it in Edmonton and “wants to be there”?

I mean, the trade market for top-pairing defenders under the age of 28 would be about 31 teams large and I’d be willing to bet a team like Philly would have some massive interest in Nurse. Reckon they’d be willing to talk about Ivan Provorov?

The Hockey Writers

NHL Rumors: Oilers, Islanders, Blues, Kessel, Chara, More

Darnell Nurse spoke with media after it became official that he’d signed an eight-year, $74 million extension with the Oilers on Friday. When asked if the reports of a four-year deal were accurate, he confirmed that’s where his head was at going into negotiations.
- … it was clear he was thinking about the business of his contract and it didn’t feel likely he was looking to take a team-friendly deal having signed two previous bridge contracts.
Kyle Palmieri, Casey Cizikas Zach Parise, and Travis Zajac are all believed to have handshake agreements done with the New York Islanders organization. Still, the team has said nothing about those contracts.
- The buzz seems to be that he’s (Lamoriello) talking to the St. Louis Blues about Vladimir Tarasenko and if there’s a big chunk of salary retention going on in that trade, it might help if the Blues don’t know how easily the Islanders can actually add Tarasenko to the roster.
Fans have heard this story before, but it’s not clear if Chara will play in the NHL next year and he’s still contemplating his future.
- It’s not clear if he’s looking to go back to Boston, continue with the Washington Capitals or find a team that would give him the best chance to win or the most money on a one-year deal.
Phil Kessel’s agents have requested a trade on the player’s behalf. Speculation is that he’d like to play in Vegas, but the Golden Knights are not reportedly interested because of their current cap space issues. Likely the combination of wanting to win and the exit of head coach Rick Tocchet has Kessel thinking it’s time to go.