aufheben
#Norris4Fox
I assumed McDavid had a role in this, directly or indirectly (probably the latter.) I literally cannot come up with any other rationale for this.Still not a single person saying what they would have done instead, except "wait til next year on the off chance Nurse sucks and try to lowball him". Which is a different way of saying let him walk.
So, you're the GM of the Edmonton Oilers, the team battling it out with Winnipeg and Columbus for hardest place to get impact free agents and one of the top teams to go on everyone's NTC (something almost all impact players tend to have now). You decide to heroically lose Nurse rather than overpaying him. McDavid and Drasaitl have 4 and 3 years left at their contracts, and both get more than a little peeved because he's both their BFF and the guy holding the defense together. Your defense is now anchored by Duncan Keith and a bunch of players graduated from lower leagues who'd all be rookies. At defense. What do you do?
Then again, this is not the first time this summer I’ve asked myself “What the hell are they doing?” so I’m still a little skeptical about the lack-of-choice thing.