The Edmonton Oilers may have lost Adam Larsson to the Seattle Kraken, but won’t be letting Darnell Nurse get anywhere close to free agency. The team has signed their top defenseman to an eight-year contract extension, which, when added to the one-year he has left on his current deal, keeps him locked up through the 2029-30 season. Nurse’s average annual value will increase to $9.25MM for the 2022-23 season, giving him the fifth-highest cap hit among NHL defensemen, coming in just below the recent extensions for Zach Werenski and Seth Jones.
Nurse, 26, was the seventh-overall selection in the 2013 draft, picked three spots behind Jones and just ahead of Philadelphia’s Rasmus Ristolainen. During his 406 regular season games, he has recorded 157 points and averaged more than 22 minutes of ice time. Both of those numbers have increased dramatically recently though, with Nurse recording an outstanding 16-goal, 36-point campaign in 2020-21. That was good enough for seventh in the Norris Trophy race, the first time he had received votes for the award.
This is betting that the increased level of play Nurse showed this year will continue, but it’s also locking up a player who has never wavered in his commitment to the Oilers. The team has had trouble keeping or attracting premium free agents in the past, which Nurse would have represented had he been allowed to play out this season. He was scheduled for UFA status in the summer of 2022, where teams from all over the league likely would have offered large, long-term deals.
Still, this bet comes with a ton of risk for Edmonton. Nurse has never had very strong defensive metrics, and though he adds a lot of the things teams covet—size, skating ability, physicality and offense—it hasn’t resulted in any real success for the Oilers. He’s played just 21 postseason games during his career, 13 of those coming in the 2016-17 season and four being the qualification round from 2020. All of that has come when Nurse was making quite a bit less than he will be going forward, meaning he’ll have to improve his play to provide any real excess value for Edmonton.
Of course, there is quite a bit of money coming off the books for the Oilers next season. Mikko Koskinen’s $4.5MM cap hit will expire, as will contracts for both Kyle Turris and Kris Russell. After the 2022-23 season the team will no longer be paying Milan Lucic (retained) and Andrej Sekera (buyout) to not play for them. A deal of this magnitude doesn’t put them in cap hell, but it certainly will restrict what they can do with that extra space.
The question now is how the rest of the blueline will look in Edmonton this season, with newcomers Duncan Keith and Cody Ceci joining the fray. The team has its presumed top-four locked up through at least the 2022-23 season, though the emergence of Evan Bouchard as a difference-maker while still on his entry-level deal would certainly help.
By next season Nurse will become the second-highest paid player on the Oilers, surpassing the $8.5MM that Leon Draisaitl’s contract carries through 2024-25. That comes with plenty of expectations, especially on a team that has also has the best player in the world. With this much money being handed out, there will have to be some postseason success and it’ll have to come soon.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Not saying that that’s an eye popping AAV, but I’m almost blind now. By all means, give a guy max term and the 5th highest blue line cap hit based on one good year.
I guess that’s one way to make Duncan Keith’s contract look more palatable.
Good player, massive yikes though.
Edmonton following the Leafs path of overpaying the top players to ensure there is no money for depth, hence perpetual losers.
Big BIG yikes. Kenny Holland, baby.
Oh boy
He’s definitely trending up, but I’d categorize this as a “prospector” deal, hoping he keeps improving, and by leaps-and-bounds, not baby steps. Buying out UFA years costs $, but this may cause the depth quality to go backward, thanks to a still-flat cap. Just because Player “A” got overpaid in another organization, doesn’t justify a comparable overpay with this team. But, it does when fiscal restraint goes out the window in the cap era, doesn’t it?. If healthy, he should come closer to being worth the overpay, but he’d need to hoist a cup to soothe some of the angry masses.
Alberta finally paying it nurses
this one’s gonna pay off… (eye roll)
Fact is, Nurse would’ve gotten this deal from someone else if he hit free agency, so it’s the price you pay for high end talent now. With 31 other teams competing for the relatively scarce amount of top end players around the league, you’re gonna have to overpay to get them or keep them.
My only concern with the Oilers though is how much money they have tied up in 5 players now. That could be a problem down the road.
Limiting contract lengths to 5 years max would be a good direction for this league to take, but that’s not likely to happen anytime soon.
This is even worse then the other contracts signed this year.
Horrible, horrible contract…
Had to do it or lose him next season. Could gamble that he doesn’t put up the same numbers sure…Then you risk upsetting the player by throwing out the well you only did it one year but couldn’t do it again. That would work well with him I think.
Over/under, 18 months til McDavid is traded
Cmon man that’s just a dumb comment
Anyone who has actually watched nurse play seen how valuable he is to the oilers. The guy is a horse. I agree it’s an overpay but as another commenter added, that’s the price you pay for talent and Edmonton can’t seem to attract free agents. Nurse is too valuable to let walk.
One thing we learned in Detroit is that Kenny loves overpaying his players. We are finally getting out of those terrible contracts
More money than Makar? I dont see Holland winning executive of the year anytime soon. He is certainly an improvement over Chiarelli but sometimes he makes me wonder.