In recent days, top Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse requested a trade from the organization, and by most indications, it appears as though the towering blue liner and the Oilers are going to be parting ways with one another before long.
However, there are multiple obstacles in play that could make moving Nurse difficult for current Oilers general manager Stan Bowman, not the least of which is his current annual salary cap hit of $9.25 million per season.
Of course, the Oilers would need to maximize their return for Nurse. Despite his struggles in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in recent seasons, he still was among their team leaders behind Connor McDavid and fellow defenseman Evan Bouchard in average ice time per game.
In the meantime, who could the Oilers potentially be thinking about as a replacement for Nurse on their blue line for if and when a trade goes down at some point during the offseason?
The Edmonton Oilers Could Have Multiple Potential Replacements For Darnell Nurse In Mind
According to Oilers Insider Zach Laing of OilersNation, there are three potential replacements for Nurse on the Oilers blue line for if and when they trade him. The three names he lists include Jamie Oleksiak of the Seattle Kraken, Mario Ferraro of the San Jose Sharks, and Nick Blankenburg of the Colorado Avalanche.
“The 33-year-old has been linked to the Oilers in the past, and has remained an effective defenceman. He’s spent the last five years with the Seattle Kraken, scoring 21 goals and 89 points in 389 games, and has been a strong driver of play over that time. His first two years saw him impact the game above that of a first-pairing defenceman, though in his last two years, his game has dipped to, on average, a high-end third-pairing defenceman.”
When writing about Ferraro, Laing said:
“Could the Oilers nab another San Jose Sharks defenceman? Ferraro, 26, is set to hit free agency this summer, fresh off another season where he munched minutes, playing just over 21 minutes a night this past season. He scored seven goals and 23 points in 82 games, and led all Sharks defenceman in penalty kill minutes by 100 minutes.”
Finally, with regard to Blankenburg, Laing wrote:
“While Oleksiak and Ferraro are both left-shot defenceman, Blankenburg is a right-shot who the Oilers could look at. He scored eight goals and 24 points in 61 games this year, playing 49 games for the Nashville Predators and a dozen for the Colorado Avalanche. He got in for five playoff games with the Avs, and is a player that could go overlooked.
He’s not large in stature, standing at just 5-foot-9 and 177 lbs., but averaged nearly one blocked shot and one hit per game.”
The Edmonton Oilers Could Soon Trade Darnell Nurse
By all indications, it appears as though Nurse and the Oilers are headed for a split after a decade with one another.
Taken in the first round (seventh overall) of the 2013 NHL Draft, Nurse has appeared in 798 career regular-season games with the Oilers, scoring 88 goals and adding 236 assists. He has also added seven goals and 22 assists in 100 career Stanley Cup Playoff games.
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