Darnell Nurse Nixes Trade?! | Edmonton Oilers News & Discussion

Darnell Nurse Nixes Trade?! | Edmonton Oilers News & Discussion

Hello Oilers fans. Austin here with just some offseason news. Nothing too crazy, nothing too breaking. However, it was noteworthy in the fact that I think it’s important to talk about because this is a very polarizing player. Uh it’s something that Elliot Freeman talked about on his 32 thoughts podcast that is now being widely reported. uh David Staples from the Empton Journal, the Oil Rig, uh uh you know, fans across uh the hockey sphere and journalists across the hockey sphere have all mentioned that uh it does sound like the Oilers asked the players who had no move clauses on the team before uh offseason hit or I guess before free agency hit, you know, if they’d be willing to leave Edmonton, if they’d be willing to wave their no trade clause to go somewhere else. Now, we do know that Victor Arvdson agreed to that because he was traded to the Boston Bruins. Uh, but it does sound like a couple veterans on the team did not want to wave their no trade clause. One of them was Adam Henrik. Of course, he’s settled in with his family. So, I don’t entirely blame him, especially with where he’s at in his career. He’s in the twilight of his career. Probably just going to end his career with the Oilers, if I’m going to be honest. But the other player was Darnell Nurse, of course, as a general manager. Now, there’s going to be fans that are going to probably get really mad at Darnell Nurse for saying no to waving the no trade clause or no move clause, I should say. And honestly, that could be fair, right? cuz you know as a GM you want to see if certain guys can go and well why would they ask Darnell Nurse to wave his no trade clause he played a ton of even strength minutes in the playoffs uh he had a pretty good regular season but I do find that as the playoffs progressed he didn’t play as good especially in the cup final although I would say against Vegas and Dallas he was actually pretty solid for Edmonton but why would they ask Darnell Nurse to wave his no trade clause he has a letter on his jersey he’s one of the leaders he’s a friend of Conor McDavid all comes down to the salary folks It all comes down to that $9.25 million that he makes. And general managers across the NHL, what they do is they check in with players who have no trade clauses and they’re they just check in, right? Um I have talked to former GMs, current GMs through sports management worldwide. And that is something that is very common especially when teams enter an off season because yeah, you may have a no move clause for five or six years and maybe you’re near two or three of the deal. Uh, but general managers, it is their job to check in, check in with the player, check in with the agent, see how things are going, and if they’re they’re open to a change of scenery. And for Darnell Nurse, he has the right to say, “No, I’m happy in Edmonton. I would like to stay.” And fans, we’re there’s going to be an intensity around this, right? But the player, he has the right to say no. The general manager has the right to ask the player about if they would wave or not. Would trading Dardell nurse give the orers more flexibility? In theory, yes. In theory, if you’re trading him for, I I don’t know, maybe a player worth about five million back, you save about four plus million dollars in cap space, and then you can use that towards filling out other holes in your roster. But it’s not easy to fill the hole that Darnell Nurse would put in the Oilers defensive group. And it’s not easy to move a contract that is worth that much without having to bring someone in that is also worth a lot of money. And it could end up just being like a Milan Luchi James Neil swap where you have two aging forwards who just they both made roughly the same amount of money. Change of scenery, quick little swap. Bada bing, bada boom. And uh and if you’re the Oilers, you have James Neil score 19 goals in a co shorten season, but then Billy prorates it to 20 goals so that the Oilers have to give up an extra draft pick to Calgary, which was pretty fun. If anyone remembers that, take a look at that. but it is noteworthy to talk about and I want to know all of your thoughts about Darnell Nurse, his situation with the team and do you think this is going to be the last time that we hear about Darnell Nurse being asked to wave that no trade clause because I do think management es especially Stan Bowman right I’m looking at this from the perspective of Bowman he did not sign that contract with Darnell Nurse he was not part of it he’s only been with the team for about one year now I think just less than a year and he is trying to put his stamp on the team and as a general manager you have your team around you. You have your cap specialist. You have your assistant GM. You have your pro scouts. And you’re all looking at the salary cap and going, “hm, which players are valuable based on their cap hit? Which players are not as valuable?” Not saying that nurse is not valuable. There’s a lot of things about Darnell Nurse’s game that I like, but Darnell Nurse is the easy one to point out as a big outlier and going, “Okay, can we move him? If yes, how much space can we free up?” And of course, I do want to just let everyone know that, you know, Elliot Freriedman was the one that reported on this on the 32 thoughts. David Staples, uh, he wrote an article on it on the Empton Journal. Uh, the Oil Rig, uh, also reported on this as well. It does sound like the Oilers will also have a new goalender coach, and they may keep both Steuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard to try a new approach with the same players. Please don’t. I’m okay with the new goalie coach. They have to bring in some type of goalender that will push at minimum Calvin Pickard out and down into the AHL or a outright replacement for Steuart Skinner as a full-time starter. Listen, moving the goalender coach, getting a new one, that’s a great start. But here in Oil Country, we need a little bit bigger. We need to dream bigger, see bigger possibilities here. Is the goalending market all messed up right now? Yes. Is it hard to trade for a goalie? Yes. Is it hard to find a goalie on the market to sign? Of course. Like, I’m not saying that these are easy decisions that Stan Bowman can just do like he’s playing franchise mode on Xbox or PlayStation. We all know that it is much harder to make deals than, you know, how fans might make it seem. But at the end of the day, you are paid a lot of money as a general manager in the league. It is your job to figure out the solution here. It is your job to move out whoever you need to move out to get that impact goalender to help this team win. Now, I do think a new goalending coach at minimum can help a guy like Steuart Skinner just because of Stuart Skinner’s age. He’s mid20s. Uh, still we’ve seen that potential. We know when Skinner gets hot, he is like the hottest goalie in the league, but when he when he’s not hot, he is legitimately the worst goalender in the NHL. And there’s no consistency. He’s hot, he’s cold, he’s up and down, he’s wrong, it’s right, it’s black, it’s white. Katy Perry, uh, I kissed a girl if anyone had. Anyways, uh, wait, no, not I kissed a girl. I don’t even remember what the song was. It’s a Katy Perry song. And uh also they are confident the Oilers that is in a Conor McDavid extension which I think most fans in oil country are also confident in an extension for Conor McDavid. Now whether Conor McDavid signs a three-year deal, 58, we’re not sure yet. Evan Bousard ended up settling on a four-year contract. And a little bit of extra news from the same 32 thoughts podcast is that Evan Bousard was being threatened with an offer sheet from the Carolina Hurricanes supposedly. You know, if Elliot Friedman is kind of talking about the Hurricanes and offer sheets, I’m sure there was smoke there. And you may have had Buchard’s agent kind of, you know, give a little wink to Stambo and be like, “Hey, my client may get offers if we can’t get something done here before free agency opens.” So, at the end of the day, I’m happy with the Evan Buchard contract. Do I wish it was eight years? Yes. Stan Bowman was asked about why they didn’t go for eight. Bowman basically said based on the discussions that they had, an 8-year deal would have pushed the price to a point that wouldn’t have made sense for either side. So, they settled on the four-year contract, which I think is okay. Conor McDavid will be resigned at some point, likely this summer or maybe early September, just like Leon Dryidle was last summer. So, I’m not worried about McDavid resigning. What I am curious to see, though, is how long McDavid decides to sign for. I do think it’s going to be shortterm. Maybe two, three years, maybe four, maybe five. Who knows? I don’t think McDavid’s going to do the eight-year deal. So, we’ll kind of see how that plays out for Edmonton. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Let me know if you think there’s a chance that the Oilers could move a Darnell Nurse and uh what that would even look like. Like, what would a Darnell Nurse trade even look like? Would it look like a Seth Jones trade? Like, do teams value Darnell Nurse the way they value Seth Jones pre Florida Panthers? Like, you know, right? Obviously, Seth Jones, the way he played for Florida in the playoffs, absolutely phenomenal. Are there teams out there that look at Darnell Nurse and go, “Hey, maybe a change of scenery would be good for him.” Who knows? If the Oilers have to keep Darnell Nurse, they have to keep him. It’s fine, right? He He just has to figure out how to play in the playoffs. If he plays like he did in the regular season in 2024, 2025, I’m happy with Darnell Nurse’s game. I thought he had a terrific regular season. He pushed play. Uh his advanced underlying metrics were good. He put up a decent amount of points. It’s just in the playoffs when the games matter most, especially in the cup final where he really did seem like he was struggling a bit. So, we’ll see how it all plays out. Folks, I hope you’re enjoying your summer. I hope you enjoyed your Canada Day, your Fourth of July, whatever you’re celebrating this time of year. Uh whether you’re camping or whatever it is you’re up to, I hope you’re all doing well. Oil country, tell them that you love them. And as always, fight like a kid. Fight like Ben. Let’s go Oilers. We’ll see you in the next one. Take care.

In today’s video, Austin Hockey discusses the recent news about Darnell Nurse refusing to waive his no-move clause. Austin also discusses the Evan Bouchard contract, Connor McDavid’s status for re-signing, and other news that has been reported by Elliotte Friedman of the 32 Thoughts Podcast. #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl