Since the day Evan Bouchard passed Darnell Nurse as the ‘heart of the order’ defensemen, we knew this day would come. Stan Bowman has an opportunity to show what he can do in the trade market, and the Oilers have a chance to improve the team if cards are played right. Please read this.
Teams that have been mentioned early as possible destinations include the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers. Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. We all have our own views on what a trade should look like, and for me cap room is king in this deal. If the Oilers could trade Nurse for no cap return, that’s a helluva day. It’s also unlikely to happen.
So, let’s take a different approach. We don’t have Michael Parkatti’s brain and we don’t have the statistical information he would have access to, but we do have Puck IQ and a working knowledge of things like Fenwick, Corsi Rel, and looking things up (often incorrectly called research). What if we went looking for the good Fenwicks on defense from players on the clubs above, paying special attention to cap commitment?
- Nick Seeler (PHI) 34 pct v elites, 52 DFF Pct, minus .4 rel
Seeler is 33, his cap hit is $2.7 million and there are two years left on his deal. He can defend, is reliable, and could slot on to the third pairing immediately. If the Oilers made that kind of a deal, the team would upgrade a roster spot (Spencer Stastney could be the No. 7 D) and have plenty of walking around money. I think it’s the kind of deal we’ll see. I’d love something more (as mentioned in The Athletic article) but unless a team like the Canadiens go wild (that is possible) and offer Kaiden Guhle, cap room is probably the biggest get on a Nurse trade.
On the Lowdown today, our feature guest will be Steve Lansky from Inside the Truck podcast. Well talk Nurse trade, Babcock situation, Hart Trophy and the state of Staney Cup Final coverage in our nation. Noon to 2pm, Sports 1440 and You Tube.
What’s the ideal outcome for the Edmonton Oilers’ offseason?
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7351209/2026/06/12/edmonton-oilers-darnell-nurse-mike-babcock/
LT, I find your advocacy for a MacT return behind the bench to be a fascinating one. I always liked him as coach; the 2006 run earns him the benefit of the doubt. Still, in a league that keeps bringing guys back for another coaching gig, does MacT’s lack of NHL head coaching jobs since he left the Oilers tell us something?
MacT can’t really see the game on the ice from behind the bench anymore. I was talking with him during one of the meet and greets and he was asking me to read the score for him for one of the games that was playing on a nearby television. No way that you can coach like that.
Get the man some Lasik and yer golden.
Heaven forbid he only had his reading glasses on him. I do agree he’s an interesting analyst and I wish he would do more because I really like his take on things. In saying that Craig is 67 I don’t think he could take the wear and tear of a 82 game plus schedule. Babcock is 63 besides the list of other reasons get someone younger hungrier someone with vision beyond one year.
— Babs and MacT so he can get the pulse of the team behind the bench after an almost 20 year hiatus …
— I didn’t think there would be much in off-season activity but now there is a lot …
Im bringing back my “what will the Oilers do this off-season” poll: most right get a PayPal contribution to the fine blog:
1) who is the head coach next year?
2) what team is Nurse on next year? (Bonus if you name player(s) returned)
3) what is the opening day goalie tandem?
4) who is the biggest new acquisition/ free agent signing as measured by AAV, excluding Nurse return
5) Murphy, Dickinson. Henrique, Roslovic and Kapenen: which ones are re-signed ?
6) Who is the Oilers first draft?
7) Is Coffey behind the bench again?
best to just answer :
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
so I can tabulate. I’ll run for a few days.
1 – Cassidy (I’m ever the optimist)
2 – Philly (Nurse, 2028 1st, Ike Howard for Owen Tippett)
3 – Jarry/Cossa (yay Oil Kings!)
4 – McMann (5x5ish)
5 – Murphy, Kapanen re-signed
6 – Zac Olsen (no. 82, after 2nd rounder + traded for Cossa)
7 – No
1 Cassidy
2 Pittsburgh
3 Jarry-Cossa
4 a bottom 6 with bottom 4 ability on D
5 Murphy Kapanen
6 A D-man from the WHL.
7 No
1 Todd Nelson
2 SJ (Colin Graf)
3 Jarry/DiPietro
4 McMann
5 Murphy, Kapanen
6 Becket Hamilton7 No
1) Cassidy
2)Philly (Cates)
3) Jarry/Cossa
4) Murphy (maybe Kulak)
5) Murphy and Kap
6) No idea
7)Zero chance
Is MacT healthy enough to coach? He will be 68, and he looks it.
!) Hire Cassidy
2) Re-sign Murphy
3 Find a deal with Philly surrounded by Nurse and Cates/Seeler – not sure how much to retain and what to add.
4) Re-sign Ingram or find a deal for Cossa that does not include Howard.
I am going with “ideal” but within the realm of reasonableness.
Nurse & 3rd rounder to Philly for Couturier. The the third would be to offset the $1.5M difference on the cap hit. Oilers would have their legit 3c, Flers have lots of cap space
to obsorb Nurse’s cap hit.
Cates or Couturier?
You have to love the Yes reference very underrated band unique sounding. I don’t like trading for injured players but we might get a 1/3 cut rate because of the injury. Come on down Tippett all you have to do is dig in the corners and do a give and go
with Leon. Tippett you’ll score 30 don’t forget to get the over-plus on that ticket as well Owen.
I’m not sure why Dave Hakstol gets no play here. Hakstol would be my first choice over everyone but Cassidy.
If Bowman can do with Nurse what he did with Keith that would be really nice to see. DO it Kenny! LA Kings media doesn’t even know there’s a salary cap in the NHL. They’ll be excited about the great defender you got off a rival.
In case anyone was curious, the Oilers were higher on the waiver priority list than the Canes when they claimed Brandon Bussi from the Panthers.
So we’re 75% of the teams in the NHL.
this is like saying oilers picked ahead of when jesper bratt was picked in the 6th round.
literally every team has misses.
Torts answer on switching goalies was closer to being the stupidest thing I’ve heard than the question itself. Someone should ask him if he brings anything more to the table besides cheerleading and bullying.
I recall being impressed with Cassidy’s post-games addresses, even after losses. He seemed measured and thoughtful.
What was the question and answer?
Was the question about which tender he would go with and did he say he would stick with Hart, the first goalie in NHL history to allow 4+ goals in each of the first 5 games of the finals?
Breaking News!
We have video footage of Nurse finding out that McDavid and Draisaitl are advocating for Babcock 😉
https://youtu.be/-Osi_8_VAow?si=PKPPF8BqjRG6bGKQ
Nurse&Howard could be a very attractive trade.I would only do this deal to an Eastern team as I don’t want Howard burning us on the PP for the next 12 years if I live that long.
I know 4D chess is probably outside the wheelhouse of this team’s management, but it sure does feel like the Babcock thing – especially if they knew the leagure would need to do an investigation – was a big middle finger to Gary for not nudging Vegas on Cassidy. And maybe trying to stir the pot a bit on Vegas’ “we didn’t want any distractions” excuse, by making it a distraction.
The topper would be if they let the league do the investigation, somehow clear Babcock, and then decline to hire him. *chef’s kiss*
But as we all know around here, it can be very difficult to tell the difference between deliberate trolling and incompetence.
Nurse has played 798 games for us add-in a 100 playoff games that makes the count at 898 games donning Oiler silks. Can anyone tell me how many goals have been own goals (Soccer on my mind) deflections off of Nurse for a goal) Against L.A he had like 3-4 in the first couple of playoff games if my memory serves me correctly. It’s probably less than I think but I’ll fake the wild pick of over 50 goals in 898 games.
No, but I’ll wish him well.
Last season, he deflected more pucks into our neck than he scored.
The playoff 2 years ago Nurse scored at least 4-5 times against L.A. I’m going to miss that or the back door play he gets sucked in on like clockwork. Nurse is a durable minute munching D-man no need to retain take back a D contract that’s half as much.
i too wonder about philly as the destination.
They could use his style on the backend.
Seeler is an option but i wonder about cam york, he is a little inconsistent but he is on a decent sized ticket for term, he is younger and plays a huge amount of PK minutes. Could he be the ekholm replacement long term?
Cam is 6 ft 194 and age 25.
Philly gets size, snarl, and veteran experience, oilers get more skill, youth, and someone who can skate well.
Ek-Bouche
Walman-Murphy
York-Emberson
is a solid defense.
Or what about a nurse+hutson for Ryan Graves + Justin Brazeau combo .
Graves is also overpaid by about 2 million but has a history of being solid and he is massive and fairly physical at 6 ft 5 225 lbs. Brazeau would be perfect for a 3rd line with Ike and nuge.
Ek-Bouche
Walman-Murphy
Graves-Emberson
Both interesting options. Probably not realistic on my part, but with rumors of Philly being open to moving Owen Tippett I try going all in for him as Drai’s new RW:
Nurse, Ike (who Philly may like as a cheap Zegras replacement depending on the latter’s contract ask) and the 2028 1st would be my opening bid, but suspect that remains light.
The number one thing fans are underestimating with Nurse is how non-analytical factors like scarcity and ego will drive demand.
First, Nurse will be perceived by enough teams as a quality #3 at minimum or an average top pairing D. All you have to do is look at his ES TOI usage with us which has been top 20 a lot of his career which is top pairing usage. And more recently the World Championships.
Second, models don’t attribute for scarcity when valuing a player. If there are only 5 top 4 D available this year and 10 teams need one, then the value placed on those 5 D go up exponentially. The actual cap hit starts to matter a lot less (at least to some) because the alternative option is so inferior. Same idea as car, house, specialty coffee pricing inflation when it doesn’t make actual value sense. Real NHL examples are a history of all the ageing big name C & D that you are shocked for what they return in trade.
The other scarcity is GM jobs. A lot of GMs are biased to value short term benefit over long term pain as there are only 32 jobs and they want teams with great results. You see it in real world with a lot of elected officials or competitive results driven jobs.
Third is ego. Sports is full of it and some teams are going to think that they can “fix” Nurse or get him back to playing like his peak and will value him accordingly. Same idea why E. Petersson is still talked about as having real value.
Great point.
There are a surplus of teams who need a veteran top-4 LHD and who have ample cap space to deploy:
Anaheim, Chicago, Detroit, LA, Philly, San Jose, Seattle, Toronto, Utah …
Thats not to say that all of those teams are interested in Nurse, but checking down the list the next best options are Shea, and then Kulak, and then … Stanley?
GM’s with ample cap space likely see Nurse as an affordable luxury versus bidding up for Jamie Oleksiak.
If Chicago was able to land Spencer Knight from Florida in a tight cap, surely Bowman can land a useful piece without taking back much salary in return.
If the Oilers trade Nurse without retention, can they weaponize the cap space?????
Psychologically, there’s a funny thing that happens to some (not all) when it comes time to sell an asset. Suddenly all the issues with that asset, the leaky basement, the aging furnace, the patchy lawn, are forgotten and the asset becomes romanticized instead as “the home where our children grew up!”
How is this relevant to Nurse?
Imo, we have to stay focused on what Nurse is now not what he once was. He’s not an irreplaceable top pairing defenceman. He’s not an elite shutdown D or a powerplay QB. He’s an inconsistent defensive defenceman whose baseline is 2nd pairing but he can vacillate between top pairing performance on a good day and bottom pairing performance on a bad day.
Most importantly he is NOT value for money in a cap system. Trading Darnell Nurse without retaining money is the goal here. If the GM can get a solid roster player in return, that is absolutely a win but it should not be a given. If Bowman could dump this contract for a pick and/or prospect and 9.5M back into the coffers to spend on better value contracts, that is absolutely a win.
Getting rid of this contract is most definitely addition through subtraction. That is the reality of a cap system.
Luckily I think this same biased thinking drives his value up for teams looking to trade for him
I agree that some old timey GMs could be prone to overrating Nurse’s intangibles (he fights!). Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be many of this ilk manning the helms on Nurse’s trade list.
I agree with you but I posted above that scarcity and ego I think will drive his price up to something real. TLDR; if there’s only a couple top 4D available and many teams need them then suddenly cap hit starts to value less than just getting one of those top 4 D
Let’s hope the market is Bowman’s friend on this one. In terms of getting a substantial roster player in return without retaining, that to me is dependent on another GM making a mistake. And while that would be nice, I don’t see it as a realistic expectation.
There were a number of interesting offer sheet examples that cap space also frees up
I doubt the Oilers will go the offer sheet route if only because it ties up your cap spending ability for 7 days while you wonder if the other team will or won’t match. It’s the kind of thing you do when you’re 30 days into the off-season and couldn’t get UFAs for free
I tend to agree that Bowman will prioritise cap space as the return because there have been plenty of hints that he wants to add a big ticket forward. We know that he was in on Rantanen before the trade deadline last year and there were rumours earlier this year that he was interested in Tuch.
My guess is that he’ll prioritise cap savings that can be used to sign Tuch if buffalo doesn’t. It sounds like buffalo don’t want to go above $10M for him but I can see Edmonton doing so if Nurse is off the books
I don’t think tuch will be better than Podz going forward. In the past he was.
Bobby mcman will likely be equal ish to tuch as a player at half the price.
Just because the oil may have some cap space doesn’t mean it has to evaporate. They also will have to replace nurse with a significant dman.
Tuch had 23 EVGs to Podz’ 18 so this is the way to be thinking. The Oilers the last 4-5 seasons have given the same 5 players almost all of the PP time with incredible results so they need to be considering additions that score/outscore at evens, PK and are cap efficient without paying for PP scoring numbers. I wouldn’t be unhappy with Tuch but he eats up a lot of cap for a team that has significant needs outside of scoring and ideally adds a younger guy instead of a 30 year-old
Dom’s analysis (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7339910/2026/06/08/alex-tuch-nhl-free-agency-contract/?source=user_shared_article&unlocked_article_code=1.plA.WBIM.kQcvUjvx2THh) which I have a lot of time for, puts Tuch in a completely different class to Podz. Interestingly he cites Edmonton as one of the few teams that could probably extract value out of Tuch at $10M because they can play him with McDavid or Drai.
I don’t doubt that tuch will get 10 mil plus. And likely be a great fit with McD or drai.
Tuch at that contract makes it much more difficult to balance the roster. Carolina is winning with a third line that that is often their first line. The oilers don’t need more first or second line or pp goals. They need more balance. In my opinion.
Tuch is the wrong age and expected cap hit. He’s had plus 30 goals the last two seaosns, but 66 and 67 points. That’s not 8 figure production. They really need guys who are experienced but entering their prime. They can never have depth if they have more than 3 high cap players
This. Exactly ^
Let someone else make that overpay.
Bowman is also the type to simply hand over cash to Murphy and Dickinson after such a move, which would also be a large mistake.
Murphy isn’t needed to babysit Nurse, and Dickinson doesn’t produce enough to move up the lineup when fill-ins are needed.
Yes let’s be frivolous on July 1. Bowman still has trade collateral as Howard appears not to be a fit. Howard might go with Nurse in an old-fashioned trade Sather trade. Buckle-up Bowman needs to get these big-skilled wingers up front. A couple more Podkolzin will work.
I know one person that thinks Howard is not a good fit because he played 2/3 of his rookie season in the AHL.
Please Lord no whale hunts. Not unless spectacular
Nobody has explained why Tuch was so slow in the playoffs relative to his normal player tracking numbers.
Trade Nurse for capspace and then sign Kirby Dach when the Habs don’t qualify him. Big RHC are the true unicorns.
I love me some Kirby Dach.
Kirby Dach is the exact player they’ve needed for awhile.
He can’t play a full season.
He’s had rotten luck with injuries. But for a 6’4″ RHC with 3rd overall pedigree, you have to take the risk.
Injuries were the knock on Zach Hyman before we signed him.
As some have commented below, teams are asking to get on Nurse’s list. Nurse has value, his cap hit is a lot less of a deal than it was, enhanced his rep going to the Worlds, it isn’t a foregone conclusion that they ‘have’ to retain to move him. And Bowman shouldn’t. Take less and no retention
It’s the Oilers MO — and this goes back waaaay beyond Bowman Jr. — to pay full freight in trade. And then some.
Prove me wrong, Son of Scotty!
I haven’t seen Bowman’s trades as overpays. Jarry has gone into the popular lexicon as overpay, terrible trade. I think folks overestimated Stu’s value and rep in the league, and underestimated Jarry’s – as teams and players see things
McLennan was pretty harsh about Stu when the deal went down. Woodley and others have spoken about Jarry’s underlying numbers and they were better than Stu’s at the time. Most think Jarry has a higher ceiling. It also gets said that Stu was going UFA and Jarry had term is negative, that was actually a positive as it gave cap certainty, Bowman said that. Someone might get a deal now for Stu, but the Oilers would have had to pay him more than Jarry most likely as a longer term drafted player, or risk not having a signed NHL level goalie
Also overestimated Kulak’s rep and value in general, a career 3 pair D with a big cap hit for that role, especially with how bad he was this season while in Edmonton
I have zero faith that Bowman can make a deal without retention.
Maybe not, but for me Bowman has been a far better and more creative deal maker than Holland by far. I am less worried than if Holland was still around, that would have been a walloping
When Bowman delivers an Ekholm, we can talk.
He delivered a Podkolzin.
I have zero faith in Bowman. Period.
Friedman says the Oilers continue to want the league to proceed with the Babcock investigation. They are prepared to wait this out and see where it goes.
No timeline but he thinks the league wants to deal with it quickly. With no CBA with coaches, Bettman has a lot of power to rule either way.
Oilers players that met with Babcock are fully supportive of the hire.
I am surprised to learn NHL coaches have no CBA. Seems like a labour group that might benefit from collective bargaining.
Pretty small group, even when you include assistants etc.
I am far from an expert, but one could reasonably suggest that a smaller group is easier to organize than a big one, no? Seems like a smart agent might start a campaign to organize the coaches and staff into a union to drive up wages.
They do have an association the NHLCA but I think coaches are fired too quickly and there are too few jobs for them to effectively use a union for job action.
They definitely would benefit from collective bargaining but I can’t see the NHL/Owners actually agreeing to that.
Have to keep all options open. The have already stepped on the bees nest, no need to back out now
What happens if the league suspends him? Will he get credit for “time served”?
As Seravalli said, they better have some options in the bullpen. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t done anything to better himself or apologized to everyone. Particularly the guys he was over the top with. I expect Bettman is going to insist on those things happening to reinstate him, as it was for the Hawks thing
If he is suspended the oil will have to forfeit a 2nd round pick.
Said it yesterday. But unless we retain i think our best case is someone like Graves from Pit, because he has 3 years at $4.5 mill left. Can be 3LD. He is nothing special, but he can play, is big and is a vet. easier to bury or buyout, and it still gives us $4.75 mill saved.
Unless they eat $2 mill, they won’t get a higher end return. I’d rather get Graves then have $2 mill on the books for years.
Grave’s contract is perfect for playing the “we have money” card. Should the Oilers acquire him and pay his $2M signing bonus, he’s only at an average of $3M/year for 3 years in actual salary or $2.6M/year for 2 years if we do that next summer. That’s not bad for a cap floor team to get a useful player and budget relief. Ideally, that’s not the route they go but it’s not bad as a “floor” to look at for a Nurse deal.
Friedman saying today that he has only heard East teams on Nurse’s list but thinks if there is a West team it’d be LA. Also saying lots of teams who aren’t on his list have been reaching out to see if they can get on the list. This is huge as it likely really drives up the price. He also mentioned if Oilers can retain $2 ish mil, return would be solid. Knowing this and guessing teams with mutual interest, here are some names to think about as targets and/or $ matching:
Philly: Tippet, Jiricek, Cates, Michkov, Seeler, York
Pitt: Karlsson, Rakell, Rust, Silovs, Murashov, Blomqvist, Graves
LA: Byfield, Laferiere, Kuemper, Forsberg, Fiala, Turcotte, Anderson, Edmundson, Dumoulin, Ceci
BOS: Khusditinov, Lindholm, Lohrei
BUF: Kesselring, Norris, Levi, Byram, and loads of young 20 forwards
NYR: Lafreniere, Fox, Schneider, Zibanejad
DET: Copp. Compher, Rasmussen, Chiarot, Gibson, Cossa
Philly: Any one of those guys would be a decent add in their own way. Michkov surely can’t be available even with the “mercurial” nature of his playoffs, can he?
Pitt: I’d be leery of Karlsson due to age and replication of Bouchard skills, but I’d have time for the rest of the lads on that list.
LA: I see what you did there with the Ceci inclusion 😉 I’m not sure they’d move Fiala or Kuemper either if it’s LA. I’d have a lot of time for Byfield if he was available.
Boston: Khustidinov would be a decent get. Lindholm’s recent injury history is giving Walman 2.0, plus then we’re straight back into oodles of cash tied up in left defence. Lohrei would be a pretty pricey third pair guy, but at least is young and can likely step up to 2nd pair if/when Walman breaks, I might want Lohrei more than Kustidinov.
Buffalo: I have time for pretty much anything they’re offering. Great pool of young talent that they likely can’t keep all of.
NYR: I see what you did with Fox 😉 If he somehow waived to come to Alberta after what happened with Calgary it would be hilarious. Big Z, I’ve loved him for years but he’s getting older, plus centre should be a strength with McD/Drai/Nuge/Samanski already in house. Lafreniere – I doubt he’s available but that’s an obvious upgrade as a winger for Drai and could eventually be the Hyman replacement for when he ages out. Schneider – versatile enough, could be a solid 2nd pair guy, I can see it.
Detroit: Absolute hard no on Chiarot. Copp I don’t mind as he fills a role for a year and then if it doesn’t work then we can walk away. Compher – that’s a big contract for a 3rd liner. Rasmussen – he is very large and has never played a full season. Gibson – I wasn’t in on him coming here when the rumours were linking us with him. I’m even less keen on Gibson (even if he only has a year remaining) when we have Jarry already, a Gibson/Jarry tandem seems like a horrible plan. Cossa – discussed at length over the last few weeks, I like the potential, and if we’re stuck with Jarry we may as well go for young potential stud rather than Gibson.
Lots of good options you’ve identified there. My favourite has to be Fox purely for S**thousery reasons although there’s essentially zero chance he’d come here. Realistically the more I looked into them I like Lohrei, Schneider, Copp and then the obvious Cossa. Honorable mentions to basically the entire Buffalo team.
I agree with everything you said and also would love the chaos of a Fox add with maybe a Sutter hire as the cherry on top to Flames nation! And ironically, regarding Boston’s Lindholm, I was actually thinking about the ex-flame Elias as a trade of overpriced contracts at value positions.
The Chairots and Graves additions are mentioned as another way of retaining cap hit to hopefully add return back a la Cossa, Blomqvist, Rasmussen etc
Noah cates would be an ideal 3c. York could be a longterm ekholm replacement.
Graves has less term and a lot less money.
Byfield or Fiala is a pipedream.
Lindholm or Lohrei would be great.
Pretty sure laffy/fox/zibanejad are pipedreams.
i would accept a copp/cossa combo.
If this team enters the season with Jake Walman as 2LD, we are in big trouble. The problem with trading Nurse is you have to replace him.
Well if they’re really hurting…I may be right-handed and a couple years past my prime…but
I don’t tip pucks in my own net, know how to tie up an attacker in front of my goalie, and take a proper slap shot.
I’ll also take a smidge less than the money he was making. 🙂
We are paying him $7M so he needs to be otherwise move on from him too.
Great point. There was no way he could stay 3 pair at his cap hit because of Bouch’s cap hit, Kulak was too much that’s why they moved him. And he’s much better than a 3 pair
It’s interesting to me how often we heard that Kulak was a luxury on the third pair at $2.75M but lots of people wanting to our 2/3 LHD to be $16.25M combined or “we’re in trouble”
Walman is a good 2LD when he’s healthy… but he misses on average ~1/4 of every season due to injuries.
If Walman is the slotted 2LD, we need another 4/5 blueliner for 3LD
Yes we will need some risk mitigation for Walman’s health.
Walman is a fine-very good 2LD when healthy – he played through a LBI most of last season, could barely pivot – cratered his game.
In my opinion, what they need to do, if they move Nurse, is backfill with an upgrade at 3LD with a d-man that can move up when injuries hit – someone like Kulak.
Friedman on his pod saying he thinks the info on Nurse got made public yesterday as some teams got wind of Nurse’s list and were asking if it could be expanded to include their team.
There are teams interested in acquiring him and Friedman thinks a hockey trade can me made. He thinks Philly has interest. He said one team told him if the Oilers would retain in the $2MM range a real hockey trade could be made.
Yesterday the early thoughts were around getting back either a Graves, Reilly, or Edmondson in return. This is glass-half-empty thinking that only substitutes Nurse’s salary for a worse player on a less-worse contract.
Bowman has lots of holes to fill, at wing and at Center. If retaining a bit on Nurse gets you a better player to play up the lineup I think you make that flip.
I’ve maintained that Nurse has better trade value than most here would anticipate. Aim high, Stan.
No holes at Centre if you deploy 97, 29, 93 and Samanski. The Centers Four.
I think they need more than 4 centres and definitely at least one RHC. Every Oilers coach has loaded up the 1-line with McD and Drai at some point but it really needs to be considered that after every PP with 97, 29 and 93 out there, they’d only have Samanski to run at C for the next shift at evens. If I was the Oilers, I’d add a 2C, 3C and possibly another 4C like Lazar or better just to not get caught in that situation every game.
Bingo.
A strong 2C enables you to build a second line of Savoie-2C-Hyman with Nuge anchoring the 3rd line.
The Oilers have had to split 97 and 29 out of necessity due to lack of depth in the lineup. Build a strong enough 2nd line and let the big boys and Podz run roughshod. McDavid will never leave of he gets to play 20 mins with Drai each and every game.
Intel is lining up with what I thought – teams are interested in the player but not at the cap hit.
I don’t think there are as many holes as you do, presuming they re-sign Murphy at under $5MM. Nurse creates a hole as we need a more substantial 3LD than Stastney given the injury risk with Ek/Walman.
I see lots of forward option with Howard and Samanski locked on the team, on merit. A substantial 3C would be nice but I am willing to keep that powder dry, or allocated elsewhere and see where they can go with Nuge getting a real 20+ game run at 3C.
Been saying for years now that the NMC was not a barrier to trading him. Just an excuse that his fans would use to justify not trading him.
Steve Staois, agents and Bowman have said they don’t stop trades, gives players a say. The only thing is it’s often messy, though sometimes not like with Arvi, as the player also wants a change
It has been a barrier up and till now, right? I mean, this isn’t the first time management has discussed moving Nurse.
Its also continuing to be a barrier given the low number of teams – its creating a very small market.
Nurse had zero reason to waive in the past. Zero. He is one year away now, and will get to have a major say in where he is going. The decision this year comes due to a change in the weather for this roster.
There’s very few instances where it’s a legitimate obstacle, Marner being the most notable recent example.
Most players when informed that their team wants to trade them will choose to get out of Dodge.
Took 2-3 years for Nurse to agree after the team first asked him about his MMC and any appetite for waiving it.
LT – bang on with the Nurse return. Cap is king. If you can get a good, young player on a nice cheap deal, gravy. Otherwise, picks and cap.