This is Darnell Nurse as a teenager in the AHL (April 2014). Nurse will play a big role on Edmonton’s blue during the 2023-24 season and playoffs. Plenty of chatter about who he should play those minutes with, but until further notice it’s likely to be Cody Ceci. What do the numbers say?
THE ATHLETIC!
- New Lowetide: Connor McDavid, the Art Ross and challenging Wayne Gretzky’s record
- Lowetide: How Oilers’ pro scouting upgrade helped elevate team in 2022-23
- Lowetide: Projecting Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard’s points for 2023-24
- Lowetide: Oilers’ graduate a strong group of prospects to pro this fall
- Lowetide: Oilers’ late-summer options intriguing with cap crunch and lingering UFAs
- Lowetide: What are the Edmonton Oilers’ keys to success in 2023-24?
- Lowetide: How Oilers’ veteran roster, cap issues could impact Raphael Lavoie
- Lowetide: Ken Holland’s Oilers legacy and the magnitude of next summer’s moves
- Lowetide: What the Oilers are getting in 2023 NHL Draft pick Beau Akey
- Lowetide: Oilers’ baffling 2016 draft takes another hit
- Lowetide: Jay Woodcroft is (still) the right man to coach the Edmonton Oilers
- Lowetide: Oilers’ roster utility for 2023-24 could use a final tweak
- DNB: The Oilers roster is improved but evolution must continue into next season
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers top 20 prospects, summer 2023
- DNB: 10 questions with director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright
NURSE WITH CECI AND BOUCHARD LAST TWO SEASONS
- Nurse with Cody Ceci: 1584 minutes; 50.4 goal share; 51.6 expected goal share
- Nurse with Evan Bouchard: 664 minutes; 46.3 goal share; 58.6 expected goal share
I think Nurse should be expected to share the elite minutes with Mattias Ekholm’s pairing and that will benefit Edmonton in a big way. I also think it’s reasonable to expect a bounceback from Ceci, and would begin the season with the veteran on the top pair.
We argue all summer over where people should play, but for me the three things that will be major storylines are Ekholm’s first full season, Bouchard’s presence in a key role (even strength and special teams) and the continuing development of Philip Broberg. He’s there against mid- and low-level opponents but pretty much untested versus elite opponents. So far in Broberg’s NHL career, and it’s over 800 minutes (this is five-on-five), his expected goals (55 percent) tells us he can play. Where he plays is the question.
One more thing: He’s not behind. He’s arriving on time based on his talent, skill set, development and opportunity. The idea that a defenseman isn’t going to be any good because he hasn’t established certain things before a specific age is the kind of thinking that sent Miro Satan to the Buffalo Sabres. Hold back your water. Let this play out.
DARNELL NURSE
The comments made by Nurse a few weeks ago while in conversation with former Oilers player Luke Gazdic were innocuous, but some of the reaction vitriolic. This should surprise exactly zero people. Look, when someone says “Darnell Nurse is selfish because he took the money” while not making the same statement about every well-paid player on the team, they’re telling us about themselves. Disregard. Reject all signals. When two sides negotiate and come to an agreement, one assumes all in the negotiation satisfied the most important priorities while also giving up things (they believe are) nonessential.
Nurse is an integral part of this team, and will be on the night Stanley returns to the city. His being popular with all fans isn’t necessary. It happens to teams. One of my favourite players growing up was Terry Harper. There’s a passage in the brilliant book “Lions in Winter” that details what was described as the greatest f***-you goal of all time. Harper, booed heartily by Forum fans, went end-to-end (he was not a rushing blue) and scored a glorious and important goal. He turned jeers to cheers in what surely must have been a career highlight.
That is my wish for Nurse, and for you. Darnell Nurse doesn’t need your forgiveness, he doesn’t need redemption from any sin real or imagined. He could use a few more fans capable of rational thought, and I sincerely hope that includes you. He’s a very good player, overpaid because the Oilers marched him to the gates of free agency just as the river of hellfire opened for defensemen of his type. Blame management, two veteran groups who kicked the problem down the road. Management went “Opposite George” with Nurse, on the heels of long-term deals with piles of RFA seasons that allowed cushion for the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl contracts. I’ve had my say, and thanks for reading.
SOME PERSONAL NEWS
People are reaching out now and asking me about my future, some believing I’ve already committed to one thing or another. I will tell you that my writing for The Athletic is central to me, my favourite pursuit and something I value highly. I’ll be there as long as they want me.
I will also tell you several conversations are taking place and if I’m guessing there will be a microphone in front of me around September long. No decision yet, and it’s possible I’ll be in more than one place. Of course I’ll update you as days go down.
I also want to let you know I’m starting to allow hope into my heart. A man who was happily married 40 years and encountered a sudden death to his wife has to sort through some things. This has been my life for the last several months. The confidence and contentment enjoyed with my wife is gone, replaced at first by fear and confusion, then general malaise, and now (just a hint of) hope. I don’t know my journey, but do know that I’ve embraced long walks, getting out more with friends, reconnecting with people I thought I’d lost along the way, and laughter.
I am eternally grateful to my children, who see me better than I do. I’m also grateful to you for reading, subscribing and caring. I’m a lucky man. Still broken, but putting the pieces together. I will visit Jo-Anne’s grave this month, and tell her I love her. I can’t wait to give her flowers.
It’s a beautiful day, I noticed it as soon as I got out of bed this morning. That’s welcome progress. Thanks for reading.
New for The Athletic: Connor McDavid, the Art Ross and challenging Wayne Gretzky’s record.
https://theathletic.com/4730323/2023/07/31/connor-mcdavid-wayne-gretzky-art-ross/
Such heartening updates on both your professional and especially personal life LT. Thank you for your eloquence and openness for what you are going through.
I have no doubt by sharing your experience you are helping more than a few people here based on the comments, and likely even more of us shy folk who have long lurked but say little.
Years ago I purchased a ticket on the Nurse train. I’m fully onboard till end of the line. Love this player.
Beautiful day! First day walking up in Edmonton in almost 2 years. Here with the boys (now 3 and 4) to see grandma and grandad. Grandma took the boys to the Valley Zoo today and everyone had a blast.
Glad to hear things are getting more hopeful. It’s not always easy, but it’s a pretty cool world.
Lot’s of chatter about elevating Bro.
I wouldn’t dare, until he regularly wins pucks along the boards in his own end
Glad to see you’re getting on LT.
Best wishes with the new prospects.
I think you are confusing him with Bou, if you are talking about puck battles. Bou often doesn’t even make it to the battle.
There was plenty of Bro-Battle against Eichel, halfway around the D-zone.
I don’t know of any fan who seems to watch individual players with such an incredible bias. You point out all bad of any player you don’t like and all good on your favorites with very little perspective. Bouchard has been the more physical and engaging player, recording hits at a 35% higher rate, and takeaways at more than twice the rate compared to Broberg. Broberg himself gets hit somewhat more often, but I wouldn’t say that is a good thing.
Broberg has the potential to be a fantastic defenseman, but so does Bouchard. They bring different things to the table, but for overall game, so far Bouchard is clearly ahead, which isn’t surprising given he is 2 years older.
I think you are confusing Bouchard with a less developed Bouchard. His defensive game has developed quite a bit – nope, he’s not prime Vlasic but, at least in my opinion, you vastly under-state his current level of ability in that regard.
I want to see Bro carry and pass the puck with confidence. Skating the puck up the ice was supposed to be his best asset was it not? I’ve seen a lot of timid, treating the puck like a hot potato play from him.
Just needs enough games to settle and get his confidence. SwedishPoster feels he’ll grow fast when he does, as he has historically
Why is this not part of his game have they coached him out of it He just looks like No Frills bucket of vanilla ice-cream that doesn’t even have a handle on it.
LT, I appreciate the personal update and am pleased that you are in a better place.
Also, your work ethic is uber-impressive but if you ever take a day or two off from this blog, you do know that we will all be fine with that. Do what you have to do to look after yourself.
I’m always grateful for this community that you have created.
Well hallelujah!
Well put LT. I couldn’t agree more on Mr. Nurse. He’s been playing hard and has had great stretches throughout his career thus far and I also believe he’s going to play big part in the Oilers success. Where else do you even find a guy with his physical tools, skating, toughness, scoring ability (when put in that situation). We need him and sometimes the sun moon and stars all line up and we get a 104 point per year forward and two way winger like the Nuge for many millions less dollars than is average for a man with this many points (may not be that many points next year, but I’m sure he’ll not forget how to play and what he’s learned) and 83 point guys like Hyman for way less than currant value, Leon for way less than market. The market at the time Nurse signed dictated the dollars. Nurse’s contract is only a small amount high this past year compared to how ridiculously low the contracts for Hyman and Nuge are. If you look at the whole puzzle and the pieces needed to make an effective Stanley cup roster, some of these pieces are going to come along at the right time and cost less than they should and others will possibly cost a little more than hoped, but that piece is needed and our overpays are obvioulsy slight compared to underpays. Hey is there even a true true replacement for Nurse in the NHL? If there is, he’s obviously not available, never mind the picks that would have to go towards a loosing trade to get a guy to replace him at probably still a tonne of money. And just who would this replacement guy be anyhow? These types of large rugged smooth skating defense men don’t come around often. I hope he doesn’t think all the Oilers fans are A holes. I mean a little critique is fair, but come on… There’s a lot of fans that appreciate him as a good hockey player.
I’m glad to see and hear that the sun is shining!
Leon is at Hyman’s golf tournament in Ontario. He mentioned that he’s back for good now. Leon has always come back early from Europe but, damn, it’s still July and he’s back for good. That’s great.
He looks great too – rested in the face.
I’d like to see the Jets fall down the standings and have the Oilers trade Kulak + for Neil Pionk at the deadline.
Broberg – Ceci are are Stanley-winning 3rd pair
Puckiq.com does not paint Pionk in a good light. Both last year and the year before.
Yeah I think his best has gone by
He’s not that big and plays a tough style, usually catches up like Dumba. But getting Pionk is like getting Manning. Hard no from me
-1 you’re going to ask Connor twice to have another POS that tried to injure him purposefully and be the bigger guy? Pionk is an undersized cheque casher. Do ‘anything’ for another NHL cheque
There are many businessmen wearing NHL player silks, but they are gaming the system for money. Some fans may think that’s cool, I see it as greasy and selfish. I prefer good hockey players. That love hockey first and let the chips fall where they may
Not team building as I see it
I was wondering about DeMello as a potential Ceci upgrade.
He has a $3m cap and an expiring contract.
That was quick. Is the minus two from my fanclub or for the idea itself?
It’s minus day apparently
Nurse needs an entry defending strong out letter as a partner. Competency and skating always a must
I think DeMelo would be an upgrade on Ceci, but DeMelo is a similar player type, defensive d. I’m not sure about DeMelo’s outlet passing or zone entry defense–two areas Nurse needs help with.
I am also not sure how much Morrissey is zooming DeMelo.
Still DeMelo is cheap and if the Jets are outside of the playoffs at the deadline, there’s a good chance he’ll be available.
DeMelo vs elites.
The Evolving Wild numbers like him far better than Ceci over the past 3 years.
Total Ceci: 24; offense: 15 / defense: 39
Total DeMelo: 69; offense 24; defense: 94
Happy to hear you are on the mend. Hope is a good thing.
Ceci will be better, Nurse can drive you mad one shift, and then lift you out of your seat the next. Very good player, playing against the best.
The goal is to win the Stanley Cup. Ceci is not a top 4 defenseman. Broberg is. Nurse Broberg. Start as you mean to proceed with a deployment that enables one to achieve the ultimate goal.
The definition of insanity… Q.E.D.
You can thank me later.
Your argument falls well short, at this time, of any reasonable standard to use Q.E.D..
You can wait for all the data, but McDraivid’s contracts will have expired by then, and they will be gone, or their AAV’s (and Bouchard’s and Broberg’s) will have been reset higher, and Ekholm will be too old and no longer top 4.
Don’t go back to Rockville…Ceciville, and waste another year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldR6LQrljag
I agree with the endpoint of your argument – that the goal is Stanley and that Nurse, Bouchard, Ekholm and Broberg are the four current dmen who have the most likely potential to make up a defensive core capable of bringing that to pass but I am not as convinced of either your pairings or your timeline.
Both Broberg & Bouchard are still moving towards fulfilling the potential their draft spot & progress to date promise but I don’t think anybody here thinks we have seen either of them reach it. Both have things to prove as they continue to grow.
Personally I see Bouchard’s passing skills as a better complement for Nurse and Broberg’s superior skating skills a better match for Ekholm but it is the timing you speak of that I find more worrisome.
A long time ago before Don Cherry allowed celebrity to affect him he used to take his job as analyst seriously. There was a game I was watching – this is probably over 30 years ago and I have no idea which teams were playing or the players involved that I am about to talk about – where a skilled forward swooped down the right side of the ice, turned the young dman inside out and scored a beautiful goal. The Play by play guy and the colour commentator made a number of uncomplimentary remarks about the dman and the next intermission the subject came up and it was probably the idiot Ron McLean – but I don’t remember for sure – who continued to beat on the young dman.
Cherry listened to the preamble and gave his customary sigh that always signalled that he had heard enough foolishness and went on to deliver his monologue where he explained that the goal was in no way the young dman’s fault – it was the fault of the coach who had put him out on the ice against a forward line far too skilled to be handled by a young guy just learning how to be a NHL dman. The mistake, he insisted, rested with the guy behind the bench who put him out there.
I remember it because it was the first time I was ever made to consider what is now known as line matching.
You have to remember that coaching in hockey used to be more about getting all the guys to the game on time and having enough beer for the bus ride home than anything else. Coaching wasn’t really a serious thing in the NHL until the Soviets almost beat them in 1972.
Anyway, this very long ramble is by way of saying that I agree Broberg must be given the opportunity to play against other team’s top lines but I would prefer that he be eased into those situations such that he doesn’t have his confidence crushed.
Sometimes you can throw a kid into the deep end and he comes up swimming and sometimes you have to jump in and keep him from drowning. There is no rule that applies to everybody in every similar situation. Let him play top 4 early in games when the team has time to recover or when the result is no longer in doubt. There are 82 games to get him ready or to find out that he isn’t.
Woodcroft has mentioned on many occasions of putting players in positions to succeed. He often responds like this, when asked by reporters why this or that player or that player doesn’t get more minutes or responsibility based on how the public is perceiving the player’s performance.
Sometimes though the coach can’t easily prevent the mismatch. I am sure some on here would be all over Tippett/Playfair because Samorukov was on the ice against Tarasenko, Thomas and Kyrou. For both goals against, the players all came on the ice on the fly, not at a face off. The first goal happened after Samorukov and the Blue’s line jumping over the boards simultaneously, while the second goal the Blue’s line jumped over the boards halfway through Samorukov’s shift.
Thanks. I didn’t know Woodcroft talked about that. Coaching in the NHL versus coaching in the 1970’s is, of course, light years different.
And, yeah, things happen on the fly that nobody can help but I don’t see the advantage of deliberately putting players in positions where they cost the team points and have that weigh on their minds as they are pushing their way up the lineup.
Light years different except for Bowman. He did in his head what most coaches today have a team of coaching assistants and data analysts helping them do.
He says that but doesn’t actually do it. He has a set of musts that players have to meet regardless of on ice outcomes, like his mentor whom he says he’s different than but operates basically in the same way
He is very stubborn on certain things. And defaults to the Duo while not seeking to build lines and pairs that function until it’s too late. His offensive strategy is so old school, rimming and cycling with little strategic attack points. The better teams do keep players together
The PP does well because they have the two best forwards in the league and now Bouch as a threat, not much to do with coaching IMO. Still again they couldn’t cash key PPs in the playoffs again. There is a staleness in strategy that gets keyed on and shuts them down when it counts
The blender is from at least the Bowman Babcock McLellan Woody tree. But none of them are Scotty. Trying to force these youngsters to play like guys did in the past – follow the system or I’ll keep changing things so you have to – won’t work. They weren’t raised that way, the education system isn’t the same, and coaching at minor levels isn’t the brutal past
Wow – crazy that he’s overcome such lack of abilities to coach a team to the 2nd best record in the league in the 120 games since he was hired.
He has had two seasons against men in the SEL, one superior AHL season, and a rookie NHL season where all the numbers are basically above average.
One isn’t throwing him in the deep end, especially by playing him with Nurse. Broberg would be fine anywhere one puts him on this roster (with Nurse, Ekholm, or Kulak). The hole in the roster that noone else can fill adequately is beside Nurse. Broberg has the potential to fill that hole.
Potential is not the same as experience. I agree Broberg (and Bouchard) have potential. Neither has a history where you can say for sure. This is a big season for both of them because the core of the team is in their prime and ready to contend so I agree Holland and Woodcroft need to know by February. How they get there is the part we disagree on.
There is only one way to get experience, which is why one has to start at the beginning of the season, so Broberg can accumulate enough of it by the trade deadline, so Holland will know whether he has to acquire a top 4 RD.
One has to trade with real money to actually learn to trade. The risk has to be real to achieve a real gain.
This is not true in any way whatsoever. There are as many ways to get experience as there are experiences to get.
Nurse is a shutdown D. Pairing him with a defensively challenged Bouchard obviates Nurse’s biggest strength. Quit pairing Nurse with somebody he has to compensate for because of a physical deficiency (Bear, Barrie, Ceci) or just a subpar capability defensively (Bouchard).
You don’t replicate skills in a defensive pair. You build pairs that complement each other.
Exactly. This is why as it stands Ceci isn’t a good partner for Nurse. Bouchard is. They just need a less complicated D system. Man on man plays to Nurses weaker tendencies like running around. When he protects the house and retrieves well he’s at his best, and Bouch is the best at passing and defending entries which is ideal for what Nurse isn’t as good at. It’s been shown repeatedly by people that track such things
What an intriguing line of thought. Ceci, who has played top-4 for every club he’s been employed with, and for the past 2 years top pairing – in fact top-10 in the entire league in TOI v Elites and top-5 in %TOI v Elites – is definitively NOT a top-4 defender but Broberg, who in a tiny sample v Elites last year did not show well, is?
QED?
Okay then.
Its interesting to state that:
1) Ceci isn’t a top 4 d-man given he’s played top 4 year after year for 3 different organizations. Percent TOI vs. elites in his career: 31.7%, 36.2%, 36.8%, 42.9%, 40.6%, 34.8%, 28.8%, 38.2% and 37.4%
2) Broberg is a top 4 D given he’s never played as such. Don’t get me wrong, I think he likely can and will get there this year but he hasn’t to this point. 11.8% TOI vs. elites this past season.
As far as Broberg up the lineup, I look forward to him earning his way up this season.
Seems logical, given Nurse/Bouchard’s success in the past, to have Broberg with Ekholm in that case. Even moreso when we know that Nurse/McDavid works and Bouchard/McDavid needs to be a thing:
Nurse/Bouchard/McDavid
Ekholm/Broberg/Drai
You can thank me later!
Any of those teams win a Stanley Cup?
Neither has Ekholm and he has been second pair almost all of his career and is 3 and half years older than Ceci. Kind of a meaningless point since we could probably list more than 50 solid top 4 defenseman in the NHL who have never won a cup.
Darnell Nurse has played 2LD on an NHL team, didn’t win a cup. Connor McDavid has played 1C on a team, hasn’t won a cup in that role – that is such a silly argument and you know it.
McDavid and Draisatl also haven’t won a cup. Probably best to deal them then?
Glad to hear things are on the upturn LT. We’re all behind you both professionally and more importantly, personally.
CapFriendly
@CapFriendly
Kevin Bahl
2 year / $2,100,000 contract
$1,050,000 AAV
23-24: $900,000
24-25: $1,200,000
The deal buys New Jersey 1 RFA year and 1 RFA Arb year.
Beautiful words on the personal level – You are a good man and thoughts are always with you.
Wow, I agree with almost every point LT makes in the first few paragraphs:
1) Yes, I think we can make argument for various different pairings but, at the same time, I would be surprised if Manson didn’t start with Nurse/Ceci.
2) I think its reasonable to expect a bounce-back of sorts from Ceci. All the intel is that he had a groin injury most of the season and we could see the limitations in his mobility on the ice.
3) At the same time, as some of us have noted, and per the numbers LT posts, Nurse/Bouchard has had success over the last few seasons and could be an option if Manson is looking to experiment or Broberg is pushing up or Ceci struggles.
4) Broberg IS arriving on time and was solidifying himself as an every day d-man last season. The addition of Ekholm, creating high end depth on the left side (i.e. Kulak as 3LD) and a PK that was losing games leading to Deharnais in the lineup really cratered Broberg’s deployment and progression. As LT mentions, Broberg has shown he is effective against light comp. I presume that 3rd pairing deployment is what we’ll see to start but, if he does “pop and press up”, Ekholm/Broberg, Nurse/Bouchard, Kulak/Ceci with Vinny as 7D COULD be spectacular.
All this talk about Ceci and his groin injury yet nobody has said why didn’t they rest him and have him fresher for the Playoffs.
Chasing first in the West
Teams are always chasing something as a Coach you need to prepare for the playoffs. 1st place is overrated in the last 53 years how many cup winners were president trophy winners.
He didn’t say president’s trophy, he said first in the west. For reference, that would be the team that won the cup each of the last 2 seasons.
The Oilers were 8th in the West and fighting for a playoff spot after 60 games and had to win their last nine games to avoid the possibility of Colorado or Dallas in the first round. Resting Ceci for two or three games wasn’t going to solve the problem. It would have been 4-8 weeks to heal and then time to get back in game shape.
Speaking of Nurse…
https://theathletic.com/4707263/2023/07/31/nhl-contract-efficiency-rankings-2023/?source=user_shared_article
Our host shares something heartfelt and tragic, and here you are being yourself.
Interesting way to frame an article that has the Oilers 8th in the league in efficiency, and sure to move higher once McLeod and Bouchard are signed and added to the equation.
Might be wise to wait to see what those deals are before proclaiming them as wins.
What I found most interesting about the exercise is how well the Wild showed given their dead cap situation.
And then today they signed Filip Gustavson to a 3 year deal at $3.75 million.
most importantly Lowetide, may you enjoy a long healthy life.
next, Nurse logs a lot of minutes and can be frustrating at times. I’ve thought he was replaceable, but I now do not think so. Finally,this is an important season for Broberg; the onus is on the coaches to deploy him properly
Wonderful words LT, I’m glad for the progress.
Look forward to listening to you in the fall Al. I’d like to see Ceci turn into Willie Mitchell and fire everything at the net as soon as one gets control of the puck at the point. Willie rarely scored but it caused chaos in the offensive zone. The Oilers pass up the shot too often at the point and defer to the other D man. The problem with this is that the pass sometimes skips or isn’t perfect and now you just gave up an opportunity to put it on net but the end result is a corner dump in or worse a blue line scramble. To me Ceci and Yamamoto were the two players in the playoffs that looked completely incapable of scoring. Ceci will soon be approaching a full season of games without scoring a goal. A contending team can’t have a guy on their top pair incapable of scoring a goal. He has to change something.
Yamamoto looked like a child playing against a hairy ass Vegas team.
LT: Wherever you broadcast from I’ll listen.
I would like to thank you for sharing your experience over these very difficult last several months. As a relatively new husband, and no longer with a father of my own to discuss my relationship, or to model behaviour for me, I really do value how open and generous you have been. You are a role model; to take loss with such grace.
If you don’t mind me sharing, I heard of your wife’s passing last fall when I was at work overseas for the first time since the pandemic, only a few days after having had a serious freak out from being away from my own wife for what was the first time in a handful of pandemic years. Unable to get in touch, I was spiralling as I paced feverishly around a certain European port city all day gaming the ways I would have to be without her. It seemed impossible.
Having left Edmonton a while back, the first time my wife visited was for my father’s funeral. They never met. I guess the first half of my life gave way to the second, that day. (As an important aside, I am an Oiler fan because of him and I now watch every possible game with her, a full convert. Fittingly in this regard, that was the summer of 2015.)
Anyway we will have our 7th anniversary next week. I know one day some anniversary will pass and only one of us will be there to observe. The cruel backside of love. The adage “better to have loved and lost” seems written by someone who had neither love nor loss, because these aren’t, it increasingly seems, even close to exclusive. The awesomeness of it all: It frightens me daily but I simply can’t not walk toward it.
Elliotte Friedman
@FriedgeHNIC
Anaheim and Troy Terry made their arbitration submissions — team: $4.5M, player: $8M
They really should make it like baseball where 1 side is awarded. lowball and highball throw a dart in the middle. Pointless exercise. Make what each party puts forward be the options, then you’ll get actually reasonable offers. Non-binding, player or team can walk from whatever still.
Agreed. The current method just encourages dishonesty.
Apparently there is no honesty in high stakes poker.
High stakes poker doesn’t have a disinterested 3rd party deciding who wins the pot so I am not sure what that has to do with it.
If it’s non-binding allowing players to walk, then many of them would just put in a ridiculous offer, the arbitrator would pick the team’s number, then the player walks and become a UFA several years early. No chance the owners and GM’s would agree to that aspect of it. The owners and GM’s aren’t generally trying to get away from these players, since they already have the option of not qualifying them, and have the option to walk away if the arbitration award is too high.
It is already understood through the CBA and how it was negotiated that the owners still have the significant bargaining power edge over RFA’s NHL playing rights. It is agreed by both parties that players don’t get on more equal negotiating terms with the owners till they reach full UFA status. Even at UFA status, expect for the top echelon players, it is not really truly equal due to the limited supply of available NHL roster spots and the number of players wanting to play in the NHL.
And the arbitration process is more sophisticated than split the difference. It is the nature of the beast that each party stretches the envelope in their direction with their submissions, but several actual rewards have shown that the arbitrator will go more towards one vs the other based on based on the totality of all the evidence presented.
In Kurashev’s case, the arbitrator awarded 2 x $2.25, which was closer to Kurashev’s submission of 2 x $2.65 than it was to Chicago’s 1 x $1.4 million. The only award last year, Trenin came closer to the team’s ask than Trenin’s. $1.35, $1.7 award, $2.4 million. All the way back when Weber filed in 2011, he asked for $8.5 million and got a $7.5 million ruling well above Nashville’s $4.5 million submission.
He has found his niche in Anaheim and does the hardest thing in Hockey he scores. 37 Goals 2 years ago is not bad for a 5th rounder he scored 23 last year. I would pencil him in for 30 with Zegras feeding him on the PP. Just off memory I can’t think of one 5th rounder in our franchise history that even came close to that total.
I had to check, but Walt Poddubny, Moro Satan, Jason Chimera and Jussi Markkanen were all picked by the Oilers in the 3rd round.
Poddubny and Satan both had 40 goal seasons in the NHL, though neither for the Oilers.
I think you meant to say in the 5th round.
Yup, I sure did.
How could I not remember Satan in the 5th round I thought he was a 4th like Anderson. Watching him live the first couple of years you could see how sneaky good he was at finding the soft spots in the oppositions end. Satan has a 100 more Goals playing in the dead puck era than Taylor Hall to date which I find interesting.
I was about to join the Nurse conversation (I am a big supporter) but the final comments made me change course.
LT, I did not lose my wife the same way you did but in a way the result was the same. We grew apart and one day it was over.
That was a few years ago.
But I never gave up on things turning out ok.
I just returned from walking the Camino de Santiago. The hardest 5 weeks of my life. A lot of time to think and make some decisions. It turned out to be the best 5 weeks of my life and when I returned my ex and I have been talking and it seems there is a way for us to continue our journey.
Maybe things just turn out for the best.
Great to hear, bud.
Just tell me where to subscribe, tune in or whatever! Great news for a Monday morning.
Sounds like Nielson and Lt Eric are looking at getting the band back together too, so I’m anticipating quite the sports talk revival in Edmonton in time for the hockey season.
Very happy for you in your personal life as well. The hardest part I found with getting over the passing of loved ones was learning not to resent myself for getting over them. It’s a tough journey, sir and it doesn’t come naturally. You’re helping more people than you know by being able to be as open about your loss as you have.
Sounds like Dusty and LTE will be doing a 6-9 show M-F starting in September – I think Shawn Belle and J. Gage are involved.
I can’t remember if it was Gazolla or someone else but I also remember hearing/reading the pre and post game was going to be back as well.
I’m very excited and the LT news is just adding to it!
Good luck good sir!
I’ve got many thoughts on Nurse, McDavid and the Oilers this coming season. But for today, those last five paragraphs wiped out any desire to type them.
Beautiful words as always LT, I’m glad to hear things are starting to turn, I wish you all the best in this journey.
Also selfishly, truly excited to get you back behind a mic just in time for TC 😁.
Good morning Lowetide, it is a beautiful day today!
Looking forward to the day that deep colorful baritone graces my head receptacles again.
Thank you for getting out of bed every morning even though Darnel Nurse is overpaid. Hahaha
You’re a beauty
Beautifully written Al. I’m excited to hear that your dulcet tones will be hopefully gracing my earholes again soon, but I’m more glad to hear that you’re in a good place. 🙂 Thank you for all that you do.
Nurse does not have elite hockey IQ. Everything else is elite.
Muffin shot too. And those sideburns…
It’s true Nurse was once Captain Muffin, but his wrister has come some way the past two seasons. It’s beaten more than one goaltender from range, and appears to include an element of unpredictability*
* Me bro claims this is because Nurse himself doesn’t know where the puck is going when he fires.