It’s not talked about much, at least not much in mainstream media discussions about the future of the Edmonton Oilers, but one critical factor in Edmonton’s quest for the Stanley Cup is having Darnell Nurse play as well in the playoffs as he does in the regular season.
Instead of raising the level of his play in the May and June, Nurse has struggled three playoff seasons running. At the same time, in the 2024-25 regular season Nurse played as well as he’s ever played in the NHL. He was a steady force on the Oilers blue line, moving the puck well, shutting down top opposing attackers at a reasonable rate. There’s no obvious reason his fast and efficient regular season game shouldn’t translate to playoff hockey. It’s a mystery that it has not, but it’s one that both the Oilers and Nurse need to solve pronto.
You can’t have such a crucial player on a team suddenly throwing away pucks and blowing major assignments in the playoffs, not when he regularly plays effective and impactful hockey in the regular season.
Grade A dmen
That ever elusive perfect partner for Nurse
One focus on making that come to pass has been finding Nurse the right playoff partner, with the Oilers shuffling through numerous d-men these past two seasons — Cody Ceci, Vincent Desharnais, Brett Kulak, Philip Broberg, Ty Emberson, Troy Stecher, John Klingberg and Evan Bouchard — trying to get the right fit.
In the playoffs, both Broberg and Klingberg had some success with Nurse, but both of those Swedish d-men are no longer with the Oilers. In the regular season last year, Evan Bouchard and Nurse did well together, but the wheels fell off that pairing in the 2025 playoffs.. They were awful, six goals for, 11 against in 100 even strength minutes.
Troy Stecher was solid enough with Nurse in the 2024-25 regular season and 2025 playoffs, but the Oilers like to feed heavy minutes to Nurse, and Stecher is more of a third-pairing d-man rather than a player who thrives in heavy minutes against tough competition.
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The solution?
The good news?
It’s obvious what do and the Oilers are doing it.
The best bet is to pair up Nurse with Jake Walman. The two had great success last year in both the regular season (eight goals for, two against), and the playoffs (three goals for, one against).
At first glance it’s also a major mystery why the Oilers simply didn’t go with Nurse and Walman as full-time playoff partners, based on their 80% Goals For Percentage in 114 regular season minutes in 2024-25.
Edmonton’s problem was that with Mattias Ekholm out early in the playoffs, the Oilers were short on playoff quality left-shot d-men and needed the left shot Walman on that side, teaming him up with Klingberg. The Oilers then paired right shot Bouchard with left shot Kulak, and left shot Nurse with right shot Stehcer. This worked well for the Oilers as the team rolled over both Vegas and Dallas.
Perhaps when Ekhom came back late in the Dallas series Nurse and Walman should have been put together then, with Kulak and Klingberg on the third-pairing, but not to be. And I can’t recall too many. Oilers pundits or observers calling for a Nurse and Walman pairing just then either, although I’m sure a few sharp fans did.
In any case it’s better late than never. Walman is keen to play the right side and he’s an adept player, so much so he’d be on the top pairing of about half of all NHL teams. Stan Bowman made a steal of deal getting him for a late first round pick, at least if the Oilers are able to sign up Walman.
As for Nurse, he now faces mission possible, should he choose to accept it: Bring his “A” game in the playoffs as often as he does in the regular season.
I see no reason why he can’t do so, and a a huge part of it is finding a consistent partner who complements his game, who is a strong puck-mover and decent positional defender. That’s exactly what Walman is.
I look forward to seeing a long and successful partnership between the two, one that won’t last just games, but will last seasons, and will be critical in putting Edmonton over the Stanley Cup hump..