The Oilers May Miss Darnell Nurse More Than They Think

Darnell Nurse spent a long time being one of those Edmonton Oilers players who seemed to live in two different worlds. There was the contract, and then there was the hockey player. The contract was enormous, and because of that, almost everything Nurse did on the ice was judged against it. It’s a big reason he was moved this offseason.

Pointing to his contract probably wasn't entirely fair. That the Oilers signed him to it wasn’t his fault, although it eventually became his problem. From the beginning, the scouting report on Nurse was pretty clear about what he was supposed to become. He was big, mobile, physical and capable of playing a lot of minutes. He could move the puck, defend the net front and make life uncomfortable for opposing forwards. The problem was that Edmonton eventually paid him as though he were the No. 1 defenceman who could solve all of its problems. He wasn't that player. But that doesn't mean he was a bad defenceman.

In fact, Edmonton may discover this season that having a good No. 3 defenceman who can play difficult minutes is a lot more useful than it sometimes appeared.

The Oilers Have to Replace More Than Nurse's Contract.

The Oilers finally got Nurse's contract off the books this summer when he was moved to San Jose, and that gives the organization something it desperately needed: flexibility. But salary-cap relief doesn't actually replace a defenceman. Somebody still has to play those minutes.

That is the part of the Nurse story I think gets lost. Edmonton's problem wasn't necessarily that Nurse couldn't play. It was that the Oilers needed him to be something more than he was because they had invested so heavily in him. Now they get to build the blue line without that expectation hanging over the player.

The question is whether the players replacing him can provide the same combination of size, mobility and durability. If they can't, Edmonton may discover that Nurse was doing more useful work than his reputation suggested.

Perhaps the Oilers Will Be Better Without Nurse. But Perhaps Not.

And there is something else worth watching. Nurse's playoff struggles became part of the narrative around him, and perhaps deservedly so. But playoff hockey also places enormous pressure on defencemen who are asked to play 20-plus minutes every night. Edmonton is going to find out pretty quickly what those minutes were worth.

Maybe the Oilers will be better without Nurse. Getting rid of the contract certainly makes the roster easier to manage. But better financially and better defensively aren't necessarily the same thing.

That may be the real test of Edmonton's summer. The Oilers finally stopped paying Darnell Nurse like an elite No. 1 defenceman. Now they have to prove they can replace the actual defenceman they had.