This from NHL insider Elliotte Friedman: there is a market for Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse. On the Fan Hockey Show out of Toronto, Friedman stated, “I think people would be surprised by the amount of interest. To me, it just comes down to what kind of deal you’re willing to meet. The last time I spoke to somebody about this was the other day. There were some teams saying, ‘well, you know, you retain something, we’re interested.’ I do think there’s legit interest. Edmonton had kind of indicated that they didn’t think they’d have to retain a lot, if at all. To me, there’s a little bit of negotiating, sabre-rattling there. I think Edmonton’s going to be able to make a deal. I just think it comes down to what does it all look like? A lot of this is not only about the player. It’s about what you can extract or not have to give up. So it’s like there’s two parts to this. It’s, where is he willing to go? And secondly, what are the two teams willing to do? But I do think there’s legitimate interest.”
Potential Destinations
Friedman mentioned Philadelphia as a possible destination for Nurse, with San Jose often mentioned in the past.
My Take
1. GMs on other NHL teams believe in Darnell Nurse even if many Oilers fans aren’t so keen on him. This isn’t unusual with NHL players, especially with defensemen and goalies. They are the last line of defense, and when they make a mistake, it often directly results in a goal against. Fans hate that and they remember the big ugly mistakes. I can think of a few big ones from Nurse myself in key playoff games.
As for Nurse, he’s had five poor playoff seasons in a row, which is the ONLY reason he’s on the block. Oilers management would accept his big salary if he’d only come through in the playoffs. The post-season slumps are the major reason fans in Edmonton have soured on him, with 81 percent of fans in a May poll open to seeing him moved, though some with stipulations, such as Edmonton not retaining too much salary or taking back a bad contract.
But in the regular season he’s graded out overall as a good NHL defenseman, a solid second-pairing defender with size and an edge to his game. What’s not to like?
2. But of course there is interest in Nurse. He’s a tough, fast, rugged two-way defenseman who can play against tough competition in the prime of his career.
The number of NHL defensemen available in trade or as free agents is also small. There are only a handful of Top 4 defensemen available as Unrestricted Free Agents right now, namely Darren Raddysh, John Carlson, Rasmus Andersson and maybe Brent Burns, Ryan Shea, Brett Kulak, and Jacob Trouba if you’re stretching. Not only is there not high quality in the defenseman market, there’s not a lot of quantity, with few useful NHL defensemen period on the market.
