What have you seen Nurse skate? Don't assume because a guy is 6'5 he can't skate
Nurse in his draft profile was given a 5/5 for his skating
Oh I have seen Nurse skate. He moves well actually for a big man.
The issue though is that for young defenceman of that size is the side-to-side movement. For example, Ill use Seth Jones right now.
Jones is excellent moving forward with the puck, however, we have seen him get beat in one-on-one situations because he simply doesnt have the side-to-side movement yet. See Nathan Mackinnon just walking around him at the Memorial Cup. Its also happened quite a bit in the NHL.
Of course it will improve, but Nurse is a lot more raw at this point than Jones, and for me, I dont see it being at the Olympic level in 4 years. This is key especially on big ice.
Thats where a smaller, more mobile, but also extremely strong guy like Rielly has a natural advantage. Look at our defenceman this year. Only Weber, Pietrangelo and JBow were taller than 6'1. And if you watched carefully, JBow and Pietro both had some moments early in the tournament where they made some mistakes in dealing with one-on-ones.
6'1, 210 pounds is basically where all of our other defenceman are. IMO that is no coincidence