Oilers Stuck With 9th Worst Contract in Hockey: ‘An Albatross’

The Edmonton Oilers are coming off their best season since they lost the Stanley Cup nearly 20 years ago in the 2006 playoffs.

Perhaps the Oilers’ run to the finals had even more merit considering one of the contracts the franchise boasted on their books in the 2023-24 season.

Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic released a list of the NHL’s 10 worst contracts judged by “each player’s projected value over the remainder of their deals.” Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse‘s contract ranked as the ninth-worst deal in the league.

“Darnell Nurse should be thankful that the model doesn’t include playoff data, otherwise he’d be ranked a lot worse than this. He’s getting franchise defenseman money, was closer to a No. 2 during the regular season — and then looked less than replacement level during Edmonton’s Stanley Cup Final run,” Luszczyszyn wrote.

The Oilers signed Nurse to a mammoth eight-year, $74 million contract in August 2021 that runs through July 2030. Nurse will be 35 years old by that time and his contract carries a steady $9.5 million yearly cap hit.

“Even if we ignore the playoff mess, this contract still doesn’t look pretty. At 29, it probably won’t look better going forward either.”

The blueliner appeared in all but one regular-season game last year, playing 81 and scoring 32 points (10 goals, 22 assists) in those outings. In the playoffs, however, Nurse only contributed 6 total points even though he played all possible 25 games.

Could Oilers Remove Nurse’s Contract From Franchise’s Books?

As Luszczyszyn summarized Nurse’s deal at the end of his piece, the defenseman is in possession of an “albatross” type of contract that Edmonton will find hard to clear from their books.

“At his best, Nurse is a capable top-pair option who can play tough minutes, but that isn’t enough to warrant such a hefty price tag. That makes it difficult to envision a path where Nurse starts living up to the money,” Luszczyszyn wrote. “Unless he somehow takes a massive leap at 30, this deal will continue to be an albatross on Edmonton’s books.”

Nurse is still relatively young and won’t turn 30 years old until February 2025. However, after a breakout 202-23 season in which his production saw a clear uptick (he scored a career-high 43 points) he struggled in 2024.

The blueliner is also in possession of a no-move clause and he has the right to veto any trade the Oilers agree to in case they want to move him to another franchise. That NMC turns into a “softer” 10-team, no-trade clause for the final three seasons of his contract.

In a worst-case scenario, the Oilers could decide to buy Nurse’s contract out. For reference, if they do that before the 2024-25 season, they’d have to pay Nurse for the next 12 seasons–twice the length remaining in his contract.

Edmonton would have to pay a bit over $1.5 million per year to Nurse ($18.4 spread over 12 years). On the other hand, the Oilers would benefit from cutting him during the first and second seasons for the most part, saving $10.4 and $8.4 million in those seasons, per PuckPedia.

Oilers Still Without a General Manager

The Edmonton Oilers reached and lost the Stanley Cup Final and shortly after that defeat, they learned about another loss in the departure of then-GM Ken Holland as his five-year contract expired on July 1.

The Oilers qualified for the NHL postseason every season under Holland, who was named general manager and president of hockey operations on May 7, 2019.

The franchise handed the reins to Jeff Jackson, who is still acting as an interim GM and already conducted the first offseason tasks and roster retooling at the start of free agency.

Jason Gregor, host of Sports 1440 in Edmonton believes the Oilers will hire a new GM before the end of July.

“Yes. Interviews are ongoing. Within the next two weeks, I suspect they will name a GM,” Gregor replied to a person asking him about the situation on X on July 16.

In another message, Gregor said that Jeff Jackson “will still be involved” with the Oilers, but he “won’t be the GM” the franchise chooses for the position.

Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic mentioned seven potential candidates to take over the role in a story published on July 5. He listed Jason Botterill, Stan Bowman, Sean Burke, Mathieu Darche, Keith Gretzky, Brad Holland, and Mark Hunter.