The Edmonton Oilers are coming off their best season in nearly two decades, since missing out on the Stanley Cup in the 2006 playoffs.
Perhaps the Oilers' run to the Finals was even more valuable when factoring in one of the franchise's most impressive contracts for the 2023-24 season.
Dom Ruszczyszyn of The Athletic released a list of the top 10 worst contracts in the NHL, judged by “each player's projected value over the remaining life of his contract,” and Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse's contract ranked as the ninth-worst in the league.
“Darnell Nurse should be thankful that this model doesn't include playoff data or he would have ranked much worse. He's made a franchise defenceman's salary, was close to second in the regular season, but looked below replacement level in Edmonton's Stanley Cup Final run,” Ruszczyn wrote.
The Oilers signed Nurse to a massive eight-year, $74 million contract in August 2021, running through July 2030. Nurse will be 35 at that point, and his contract comes with a $9.5 million cap hit each year.
“Even if you ignore the playoff upsets, this contract still doesn't look good. At 29 years old, it's not going to look good any time soon.”
The blue lineman appeared in all but one regular season game last year, scoring 32 points (10 goals, 22 assists) in 81 appearances. In the playoffs, however, Nurse contributed just six points total despite appearing in all 25 games.
Could the Oilers remove Nurse's contract from the franchise's books?
As Ruszczyn summarized Nurse's contract at the end of his article, the defenceman has a “burdensome” contract that Edmonton will have a hard time getting off the books.
“At his best, Nurse is a capable top-pair option who can play through tough minutes, but that alone isn't enough to justify such a high price tag, and it's hard to imagine a path for Nurse to start making a play that matches that amount,” Luszczyn wrote. “Unless Nurse makes some sort of leap at 30, this contract will continue to be a burden for Edmonton.”
Nurse is still relatively young, not turning 30 until February 2025. But after a clear uptick in his production during a breakout season in which he went 202-23 (he scored a career-high 43 points), he struggled in 2024.
The blue lineman also has a no-trade clause, giving him the right to veto any trade the Oilers agree to if they want to move him to another team. This NMC is a “looser” 10-team no-trade clause that applies to the final three seasons of his contract.
In a worst-case scenario, the Oilers could decide to buy out Nurse's contract — for reference, if they do so before the 2024-25 season, they'd have to pay Nurse's salary for the next 12 seasons, or twice the remaining life of his contract.
Edmonton would have to pay Nurse just over $1.5 million per year ($18.4 million over 12 years), while the Oilers would benefit from cutting Nurse in his first and second seasons, saving $10.4 million and $8.4 million over those two seasons, respectively, according to PuckPedia.
The Oilers still don't have a general manager.
The Edmonton Oilers reached the Stanley Cup Finals only to lose, and shortly after that loss they learned of another setback when then-general manager Ken Holland was due to step down on July 1 at the end of his five-year contract.
The Oilers have qualified for the NHL postseason every season under Holland, who was named general manager and president of hockey operations on May 7, 2019.
The team handed the reins to Jeff Jackson, who remains interim general manager and has already made his first offseason moves and restructured the roster as free agency began.
Edmonton's Sports 1440 host Jason Greger believes the Oilers will hire a new GM by the end of July.
“Yes, interviews are underway and we expect a GM will be appointed within the next two weeks,” Gregor said July 16 in response to a person asking about X's status.
In a separate message, Gregor said Jeff Jackson would “remain involved with the Oilers” but “will not be the club's selectmant of general manager.”
Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic, in a July 5 article, named seven possible candidates to take over the role: Jason Botterill, Stan Bowman, Sean Burke, Matthew Darsh, Keith Gretzky, Brad Holland and Mark Hunter.
