At 6’4” inches and 215 lbs., Darnell Nurse is a big man. He has a big leadership role on the Edmonton Oilers and a big eight-year, $9.25 million per year contract to match. All of this is a going to be a huge problem going forward for the Edmonton Oilers.
Nurse’s Contract Poses a Problem For the Oilers
Nurse signed an 8-year $74 million contract in 2022. It expires in 2030, when Nurse will be 35. The annual cap hit is $9.25 million through the length of the contract.
| 2022-23 | 2023-24 | BUY OUT
2024-25 |
BUY OUT
2025-26 |
BUY OUT
2026-27 |
BUY OUT 2027-28 |
BUY OUT
2028-29 |
BUY OUT
2029-30 |
|
| CAP HIT | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 |
| AAV | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 | $9,250,000 |
| BASE | $12,000,000 | $10,400,000 | $12,000,000 | $10,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $1,200,000 | $1,200,000 | $1,200,000 |
| PERFORMANCE BONUSES | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| SIGNING BONUSES | – | – | – | – | $6,000,000 | $6,000,000 | $6,000,000 | $6,000,000 |
| TOTAL SALARY | $12,000,000 | $10,400,000 | $12,000,000 | $10,000,000 | $8,000,000 | $7,200,000 | $7,200,000 | $7,200,000 |
| MINORS SALARY | $12,000,000 | $10,400,000 | $12,000,000 | $10,000,000 | $8,000,000 | $7,200,000 | $7,200,000 | $7,200,000 |
| CLAUSES | NMC | NMC | NMC | NMC | NMC | NMC | NMC | NMC |
The Athletic‘s Dom Luszczyszyn (paid subscription required) calls it the ninth worse contract in the NHL.
“The biggest problem here is that Nurse was never a $9.25 million defenseman to begin with — that just happened to be the price tag for a lot of young defensemen who were at the time. Nurse played a similar role, but his results weren’t anywhere close. Now the Oilers are paying for that.”
According to Luszczyszyn, Nurse’s on-ice performance last season was worth $5.9 million. That’s based on regular season data. It doesn’t include the poor playoff Nurse had this year. And it’s further complicated by terms that make it almost impossible to move, as we’ll see below.
Declining Performance
Here are Nurse’s stats from the year before he signed his deal and the two years after.
| Season | Team | Games Played | Goals | Assists | Points | Average Ice Time | Plus
/Minus |
Penalty Minutes | Shots on Goal |
| 2021-22 | EDM | 71 | 9 | 26 | 35 | 25:03 | 18 | 132 | 196 |
| 2022-23 | EDM | 82 | 12 | 31 | 43 | 23:30 | 26 | 164 | 146 |
| 2023-24 | EDM | 81 | 10 | 22 | 32 | 21:54 | 3 | 172 | 168 |
What stands out is both the reduced ice time and plummeting plus minus figures. First, Nurse lost his first pair position on the team to Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard. Then, he lost much of his powerplay and short-handed ice time as well.
Nurse is a shell of the player we saw play in the in the playoffs just two years ago. In this year’s playoffs, he played a second pairing role. First, the coaches tried him with Codi Ceci. That didn’t work. Second, they tried him with Vinnie Desharnais. Next up was Brett Kulak. None of those pairings went well, so they paired him with the untested Phillip Broberg. It got so bad, they trusted Broberg to play on his tougher off side of the ice instead of the veteran Nurse.
At times, Nurse played on the third pairing. He struggled with gap control on the rush. Nurse didn’t block attackers out, allowing them inside body position on the forecheck and in front of the net. He made poor mental decisions. The Oilers were outscored 21-10 with Nurse on the ice. He “led” the NHL in poor plus/minus stats, at one point threatening to put up the worst numbers in Stanley Cup playoff history.
Other Teams Have $9 Million Defencemen
Nurse’s contract terms were decided by the market when he signed it in 2022. Seth Jones of the Chicago Blackhawks and Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets signed for very similar numbers as Nurse’s that year. The Oilers had no option but to match, or they could have lost him to free agency for nothing.
One problem is that Nurse is no longer a first-pair defenceman. Another is the contract due Evan Bouchard in the 2025-26 season. Estimates put it at around $10 million per season. How many teams have two defencemen with salaries over $9 million? Here, I’ll get a cup of coffee for you while I wait. What’s that? Done already?
The Colorado Avalanche (Cale Makar and Devon Toews) and the New York Rangers (Adam Fox and Jacob Trouba) are the closest, and the Rangers are actively trying to trade Trouba.
You simply can’t have both Nurse and Bouchard making over $9 million. Especially when only one of them is a true first-pair defenceman. The Oilers got into the Nurse contract trouble by having to offer him two short-term bridge contracts until his current one due to salary cap restraints. And now they’re in danger of entering the same situation with Bouchard again because of Nurse’s contract. The Oilers need to lock Bouchard up long term when his contract expires in 2025, not give him another bridge contract and see him walk at the end of it because they can’t fit him in under the cap. Nurse’s contract terms could mean they end up having to trade a first-pair defenceman, Bouchard, in order to keep a player of lesser ability, Nurse, simply due to the latter’s contract terms.
The Available Options: A Buyout, A Trade, or Sending Nurse to the Minors
A Buyout Is Next to Impossible
Here is how CapFriendly breaks down Nurse’s contract:
- 2022-23: $12.0MM salary
- 2023-24: $10.4MM salary
- 2024-25: $12.0MM salary
- 2025-26: $10.0MM salary
- 2026-27: $2.0MM salary + $6.0MM signing bonus
- 2027-28: $1.2MM salary + $6.0MM signing bonus
- 2028-29: $1.2MM salary + $6.0MM signing bonus
- 2029-30: $1.2MM salary + $6.0MM signing bonus
First, the contract being front-loaded adds protection to Nurse from not being bought out. Second, the back-end signing bonuses creates another layer of protection. The cap savings would be negligible. Nurse is essentially an Oiler until the end of the contract unless he decides he wants out.
What About a Trade?
As we’ve seen over the years, no contract is untradable. The Oilers got out from under Milan Lucic’s contract for example. The Oilers could trade Nurse for an equally burdensome contract on another team. Some people have mentioned a straight swap of Nurse for someone on his home area Toronto Maple Leafs, like Mitch Marner. Or re-uniting him with his old GM on the Ontario Hockey League Soo Greyhounds, Kyle Dubas, in a trade for someone from Dubas’ Pittsburgh Penguins. Hockey Insider Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff mentioned that the new Utah Hockey Club has $40 million in open cap space to spend and are looking for a top pairing defenceman.
Regardless of what you think of any of these options, none of them will probably work. Nurse is in total control of all trades involving him. He has a full no-movement clause through the 2026-27 season. Thereafter, he has a modified no-trade clause through the final three years of the contract. Nurse will be able to submit a list of ten teams he would accept a trade with. And any new team would have to live with Nurse’s overpriced contract.
But Nurse is part of the McDavid-Draisaitl leadership core on a team that has a very good chance of another Stanley Cup run. He bleeds Oilers blue, orange and white. Why would he want to move anywhere else?
A Minor League Solution to a Big League Problem
What about the Wade Redden Solution? The New York Rangers buried Redden’s in the minors in 2010 when his guaranteed six-year $39 million contract didn’t work out. They still had to pay him to play there, but none of it counted against the Rangers’ salary cap. The league’s collective bargaining agreement has closed that loophole. The Oilers salary cap hit remains the same no matter where Nurse plays, on the Oilers or their minor league affiliate Bakersfield Condors.
| 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 | 2029-30 | |
| TOTAL SALARY | $12,000,000 | $10,400,000 | $12,000,000 | $10,000,000 | $8,000,000 | $7,200,000 | $7,200,000 | $7,200,000 |
| MINORS SALARY | $12,000,000 | $10,400,000 | $12,000,000 | $10,000,000 | $8,000,000 | $7,200,000 | $7,200,000 | $7,200,000 |
An Over-Valued Contract, Substandard Performance, Not Able to Be Bought Out and Untradable
Playing as only a second (or third) pairing defenceman with a first pairing’s salary, Nurse’s performance doesn’t match his contract. Second, a contract buyout saves almost nothing. Third, his contract is almost untradable. There is no logical reason why Nurse would waive his No Movement Clause to go elsewhere. To conclude, all of this is threatening the 2025 re-signing of the legitimate 1st pair defenceman, Bouchard.
Yep, the Edmonton Oilers have a Darnell-Nurse sized problem. And nary a solution in sight. The yet-to-be-named new Oilers General Manager has his work cut out for him when it comes to Nurse.
Main Photo: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
