[Signing] Oilers re-sign Darnell Nurse

[Boudrias]

IMHO Nurse is a 2nd pairing d-man on a contender. Oilers are showing big faith that he can continue to improve. He is fine on board battles and good in front of the net but he can be beat with speed and he doesn't read the play fast enough at times. Not saying this is all his fault. Oilers are paying big bucks to a few players and trying to patch things in underneath to fill out their roster. I would worry how that works out. 

[MattJVD]

8 hours ago, Millerdraft said:

Remember when McDavid & Draisaitl (even more so) left money on the table to help management surround them with talent?  Yeah, Nurse just wolfed down the entire buffet spread.  Way to take less for the benefit of the team there Darnell!  
 

I wonder how this is sitting with Draisaitl?  How could Holland not be able to sell an $8.5m cap hit based on that internal structure?  Cut a few years off the term to allow Darnell to recoup some of the lost salary as an UFA at that point and have his deal expire with McDavid’s…

McDavid signed the biggest contract in the NHL and Draisaitl had one 70+ point season when he took his deal, it was seen as a big risk at the time. Nobody took a discount, they continued to improve is all.

[Millerdraft]

1 minute ago, MattJVD said:

McDavid signed the biggest contract in the NHL and Draisaitl had one 70+ point season when he took his deal, it was seen as a big risk at the time. Nobody took a discount, they continued to improve is all.

There were articles quoting McDavid saying he took less than what he could’ve gotten but yes, Draisaitl was slightly different (they were comparing what Draisaitl got with what Pastrnak signed for iirc).  Most did say Leon’s was a risk but other reports suggested he left a lot of money by signing on for 8yrs and that has proven to be the case.  Regardless, there WAS a huge wad of cash left on the table that just got devoured by Nurse.  The point remains: instead of spreading out the wealth Edmonton has gone full-Dubas.

[Westcoastcanucks777]

23 hours ago, Bounce000 said:

Alright, knowing the Oiler’s management, here’s how I believe this contract went down.

 

Holland: “Darnell you’re a core part of this team and we’d like to keep you around long term. What’s a good starting point as far as money goes for you?”

Nurse: “Well Mr Holland, I think we’re a couple pieces away from being a really good team, I would be happy with around 6.75 mill as long as it’s 6 years or so.

 

Holland: “Sounds good, we’d like to offer you 8 mill for 8 years”

 

Nurse: “Really? I mean, I don’t want to handicap the team as far as the salary cap goes, I know we need to get a few more key players to take the next step. And I know Duncan Keith’s contract...”

 

 

Holland “Alright you drive a hard bargain... I’ll give you 9.25 mill for 8 years but that’s my final offer!”

 

Nurse “But...”

 

Agent: “Darnell shut up and sign on the dotted line right now”

 

Nurse: “Okay” *Signs* “So I’ll just go back home now...”

It’s not nice to bully!

[Westcoastcanucks777]

Or maybe Holland was intoxicated and accidentally thought that the more you pay him the better he will play?

[TNucks1]

On 8/6/2021 at 11:07 AM, MattJVD said:

Nurse is a really good defenceman, I think we're underrating him here a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if he's on team Canada in 2022 (provided the NHL goes to the Olympics). That said, 9.25 is still too rich. It's a better deal than what Chicago gave Jones, but I'd rather have Makar at 9 or Heiskanen at 8.8 than Jones at 9.25. 

 

He's worth 8 imo, covering for Tyson Barrie isn't easy hahah.

I like nurse alot but for that money hell nah

[Hairy Kneel]

 

[Team Bagues]

1 hour ago, Millerdraft said:

There were articles quoting McDavid saying he took less than what he could’ve gotten but yes, Draisaitl was slightly different (they were comparing what Draisaitl got with what Pastrnak signed for iirc).  Most did say Leon’s was a risk but other reports suggested he left a lot of money by signing on for 8yrs and that has proven to be the case.  Regardless, there WAS a huge wad of cash left on the table that just got devoured by Nurse.  The point remains: instead of spreading out the wealth Edmonton has gone full-Dubas.

Suddenly Edmonton is at the cap, with three big contracts. Hope the Canucks don't follow suit. So far it hasn't worked well for the Laughs, but maybe time will tell? - although I doubt it.

 

I can't recall the last team to win a cup with a couple superstars and middling fillers? Did Chicago win with Kane and Toews eating up 25% of the cap?

[Patel Bure]

Paying that much for Nurse is an overpayment but I can sympathize with Holland to a large extent.  
 

Edmonton isn’t the sexiest city in North America to say the very least and players need to be incentivized to play there.  
 

It’s the unfortunate reality of Edmonton.   

[Amebushi]

Ooof, Nurse is a decent defenceman but at that price I think the Oilers are completely screwed. Who is going to play once McD, Drai, Nurse and Kieth are off the ice?  They are literally a one line team that is at the cap. I really hope these recent signings are not a signal to what Quinn is going to get. 9 million dollar players need to be elite at both ends of the ice, bot just one like Quinn or “pretty good” like Nurse. I think this contract will be very painful for the Oil. 

[rekker]

4 hours ago, Boudrias said:

IMHO Nurse is a 2nd pairing d-man on a contender. Oilers are showing big faith that he can continue to improve. He is fine on board battles and good in front of the net but he can be beat with speed and he doesn't read the play fast enough at times. Not saying this is all his fault. Oilers are paying big bucks to a few players and trying to patch things in underneath to fill out their roster. I would worry how that works out. 

I like what Nurse brings physically but I've questioned the hockey sense at times. Regardless, he's the kind of dman I would want on my tream for sure, but not at that price. One really good year in a seven team bubble, with some of those teams struggling mightily at times. In no way does that represent his future trajectory. Dumb contract if you ask me. 

[Millerdraft]

1 hour ago, Team Bagues said:

Suddenly Edmonton is at the cap, with three big contracts. Hope the Canucks don't follow suit. So far it hasn't worked well for the Laughs, but maybe time will tell? - although I doubt it.

 

I can't recall the last team to win a cup with a couple superstars and middling fillers? Did Chicago win with Kane and Toews eating up 25% of the cap?

They did win a couple more Cups but I can’t remember at what point in their 8-year contract extensions they were at with regards to cap % hit.  They had a steady pipeline of guys to take over for the departing cap casualties like Bolland (Shaw), Byfuglien/Ladd, (Saad/Bickell), etc, etc.

 

Edmonton has a potential gem in third line centre MacLeod (man can he skate) making peanuts but I’m not sure where else in their lineup they’re gonna find “equalizer” cheap contracts to offset these gargantuan deals.  If the cap doesn’t start rising in large amounts Holland is gonna find himself squeezed. Hyman & Nurse eating $15m of cap space = yikes.  However, I’m expecting McDavid & Draisaitl to artificially hold up Hyman’s numbers to make that $5.5m cap hit look okay as long as he doesn’t suffer a major knee injury like Roussel did or a Hyman with cement in his skates will be a reoccurrence of the Lucic contract…

[Millerdraft]

1 hour ago, Patel Bure said:

Paying that much for Nurse is an overpayment but I can sympathize with Holland to a large extent.  
 

Edmonton isn’t the sexiest city in North America to say the very least and players need to be incentivized to play there.  
 

It’s the unfortunate reality of Edmonton.   

This is very true.  Losing Adam Larssen was a painful reality check for them.  They surely could not afford to lose Nurse and even more so with all the uncertainty surrounding Klefbom.  I still question why they couldn’t find a more palatable middle ground five year deal to coincide with McDavid’s deal.

[Patel Bure]

1 hour ago, Millerdraft said:

This is very true.  Losing Adam Larssen was a painful reality check for them.  They surely could not afford to lose Nurse and even more so with all the uncertainty surrounding Klefbom.  I still question why they couldn’t find a more palatable middle ground five year deal to coincide with McDavid’s deal.

My guess is that “more palatable middle ground” wouldn’t have been able to land them a guy capable of playing on the top pairing in a shut down role....especially someone that would be good enough to cover for a guy like Tyson Barrie on that top pairing.

 

Youre right about Adam Larsson.  Larsson must have REALLY wanted out of there.

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

5 hours ago, MattJVD said:

McDavid signed the biggest contract in the NHL and Draisaitl had one 70+ point season when he took his deal, it was seen as a big risk at the time. Nobody took a discount, they continued to improve is all.

Agree to a point on Draisaitl, but with McDavid, I’m thinking anything under league max (20% of cap) was him sort of leaving money on the table.

 

(I think in his contract year, league max would’ve been a hair under $16M.)

 

I mean, who else deserves league max, if not the guy general viewed as the consensus best player in the world?

 

And when you look at the values on some of the analytics models, like evolving hockey’s SPAR, McDavid’s on-ice contributions on his current $12.5M AAV contract come out at an average of $16.5 million per season (or $4M surplus value per season).

[Alflives]

2 minutes ago, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:

Agree to a point on Draisaitl, but with McDavid, I’m thinking anything under league max (20% of cap) was him sort of leaving money on the table.

 

(I think in his contract year, league max would’ve been a hair under $16M.)

 

I mean, who else deserves league max, if not the guy general viewed as the consensus best player in the world?

 

And when you look at the values on some of the analytics models, like evolving hockey’s SPAR, McDavid’s on-ice contributions on his current $12.5M AAV contract come out at an average of $16.5 million per season (or $4M surplus value per season).

And still the Oilers lose.  It’s obviously better to keep all salaries under 10 million.  Plus, McDavid needs to play without the puck as hard as he does with it.  Best player with the puck, but one of the worst without it.  

[fanfor42]

3 hours ago, Team Bagues said:

Suddenly Edmonton is at the cap, with three big contracts. Hope the Canucks don't follow suit. So far it hasn't worked well for the Laughs, but maybe time will tell? - although I doubt it.

 

I can't recall the last team to win a cup with a couple superstars and middling fillers? Did Chicago win with Kane and Toews eating up 25% of the cap?

Chicago won in 2010 2013 and 2015.  During those years Kane and Toews each had a cap hit of 6.3M per year.  The total cap was between about 58M and 71M total in those years.  So they were eating up something like 17% to 21%.

 

Currently Kane and Toews each get 10.5 M eating up 25.7% of the cap and no cups since they signed those contracts in 2015/2016.

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

41 minutes ago, Alflives said:

And still the Oilers lose.  It’s obviously better to keep all salaries under 10 million.  Plus, McDavid needs to play without the puck as hard as he does with it.  Best player with the puck, but one of the worst without it.  

Definitely true, until last season. McDavid made a commitment to getting better defensively, and I think he made good progress. He’s never going to win the Selke, but last year, I think he was pretty close to neutral value defensively, which was a major improvement for him. He probably used to give back nearly half the offence he created, just by his shoddy defence, but that seems to be something he’s now cleaning up in his game.

[King Heffy]

7 hours ago, Boudrias said:

IMHO Nurse is a 2nd pairing d-man on a contender. Oilers are showing big faith that he can continue to improve. He is fine on board battles and good in front of the net but he can be beat with speed and he doesn't read the play fast enough at times. Not saying this is all his fault. Oilers are paying big bucks to a few players and trying to patch things in underneath to fill out their roster. I would worry how that works out. 

They're paying extra for him being a dual sport athlete.  I'm not sure how he didn't bring home gold for the 3M springboard in Tokyo.  He's probably also eligible to compete in the women's event because he sure as hell doesn't have any balls.

Edited August 7, 2021 by King Heffy

[King Heffy]

1 hour ago, Patel Bure said:

My guess is that “more palatable middle ground” wouldn’t have been able to land them a guy capable of playing on the top pairing in a shut down role....especially someone that would be good enough to cover for a guy like Tyson Barrie on that top pairing.

 

Youre right about Adam Larsson.  Larsson must have REALLY wanted out of there.

No one is good enough to cover for Tyson Barrie.  I jumped for joy when Edmonton signed him; you simply can't win with a defenseman who refuses to even attempt to play defense.  Putting that pylon out in his own zone is the same as giving the opposing team a free powerplay with 3 forwards and only one defenseman.