What To Do With Darnell Nurse

[OilTastic]

Nurse's play will decide what to do with Nurse..

He can be anywhere from a 2nd pairing Dman in the AHL to a top pairing Dman in NHL.

Lets just wait and see how he shows up to the camp and how his preseason goes. If his game is settled down he could be giving Klefbom a run for his money on that top pairing with Larsson.

I agree that his play will decide but I don't expect his play to fall that dramatically that he'll start the season in the AHL, I believe he's going to be learning on the fly by starting his 2nd NHL season with the Oilers. and by getting a young and experienced Adam Larsson, he should be able to take the pressure off of Nurse by letting him play guarded minutes this season barring injuries.

 

[Bronz]

Nurse would be great paired with a guy like Matt Dumba. They would compliment each other so well and give the Oilers an excellent top 4.

Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Dumba (O zone minutes)

 

[Up the Irons]

Nurse's play will decide what to do with Nurse..

He can be anywhere from a 2nd pairing Dman in the AHL to a top pairing Dman in NHL.

Lets just wait and see how he shows up to the camp and how his preseason goes. If his game is settled down he could be giving Klefbom a run for his money on that top pairing with Larsson.

say what? maybe in the distant future, like 5 years, but not anytime soon.

this year, he better not be utilized in the NHL as anything more than a bottom pairing D with a solid veteran as his partner, like Fayne.

 

[thadd]

Nurse would be great paired with a guy like Matt Dumba. They would compliment each other so well and give the Oilers an excellent top 4.

Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Dumba (O zone minutes)

You know, that could almost work. If that was our 3rd pairing that would be fine. All offensive zone starts means 14-16 minutes per game. Considering how shaky this pairing would be defensively at this point in time you'd have to give them all of those offensive zone starts. I'm sure that they'll both improve greatly eventually but neither of them are there yet.

So if that's our 1st and 3rd pairing Davidson and Sekera are our 2nd pairing, and that's flat out doable.

This forces Reinhart down to the AHL. Fayne will be our #7.

That's definitely doable. Who are we trading away? Everyone always brings up Hopkins or Eberle. If It's Hopkins we're going to need a 3rd line center back or we'll have to have to be making a 3 way trade so that we're getting Dumba + 3rd line center.

Oilers get - solid 3rd line center + Dumba
Wild get - hopkins
??? get - asset from wild.

If it's Eberle we're really risking leaving the right wing incredibly weak and it's offensive firepower could potentially be the lowest in the league among all other teams' right wingers. On top of that we're not going to get a really flashy 2nd asset. I'm pretty sure we'd be striking it rich if they added a 1st rounder.

If one of Puljujarvi or Yak show us that they can help carry the team we're half way to being able to cope without Eberle. I'm sold on Puljujarvi turning into a solid top 6er. He's just too big and athletic. I wouldn't be surprised if Yak turned into a decent top 6 winger. If one of them flops we could find a free agent, but we'd have to be very wary.

I'm more of a Hopkins fan than an Eberle fan, but I'd honestly trade Hopkins first. Trading him brings the possibility of fixing up our weak spot while leaving a quality stop gap measure. If the 3rd line center coming to us is an established vet I wouldn't even care if he was on the last year of his contract. I'd absolutely love to see a full NHL roster for the first time in a decade.

Lucic-McDavid-Eberle
Maroon-Drai-Yak
Pouliot-New guy-Yak
Kassian-Letesnu-Hendricks
Pacman/Lander

Klefbom-Larson
Davidson-Sekera
Nurse-Dumba
Fayne

Talbot
Monster

How does that not resemble an actual NHL team?

I'd put Maroon and Yak together and Pouliot and Puljujarvi together because if figure that'll make the lines more balanced. Drai is only gonna get stronger and Maroon is already suited for grunt work. Yak will have more space to get his offence going.

Puljujarvi plays the body and Pouliot has shown his ability to contribute. Potentially solid line. If that 3rd line C is good enough to be a 3rd line C on 1/2 of the teams in the league, our top 16 will be solid.

If Yakupov struggles, give Puljujarvi and Pouliot a shot. If Yak doesn't do anything with his 3rd line minutes, bring in Pacman in to play 3rd line RW. He has more offensive upside than Lander and we're not going to overplay Hendricks with those minutes.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Keep in mind that Nurse played some hard minutes for the Oilers.

He's had a reasonably tough dzone push... 30.5% ozone vs 34.1% dzone (which ranks him in the top 26% of dmen in terms of difficulty of minutes looking at dman stats from the past 3 seasons) and he faced tough opponents... 50.4% GF/GA ratio (again that's in the top 21% in terms of toughness of opponents faced by dmen in the past 3 seasons).

Then combine that with the amount of minutes he played and the quality of his teammates (18th worst percentile compared to other dmen over the past 3 seasons)... and I think that goes a long ways to explaining why a young dman would look like he's struggling at the NHL level when he's first breaking into the league.


I'm not even making excuses for Nurse... I'm just viewing his play in the context of the environment he's been thrown into which certainly can't be described as a particularly easy one. I agree he hasn't been treading water BUT he hasn't been under water by as much as most think after you look at the particulars of the difficulty of his minutes and the situation he's been placed in.

 

[Halibut]

Simple. Don't play him 20+ minutes a night like they did last season

This is the correct answer.

 

[OilTastic]

You know, that could almost work. If that was our 3rd pairing that would be fine. All offensive zone starts means 14-16 minutes per game. Considering how shaky this pairing would be defensively at this point in time you'd have to give them all of those offensive zone starts. I'm sure that they'll both improve greatly eventually but neither of them are there yet.

So if that's our 1st and 3rd pairing Davidson and Sekera are our 2nd pairing, and that's flat out doable.

This forces Reinhart down to the AHL. Fayne will be our #7.

That's definitely doable. Who are we trading away? Everyone always brings up Hopkins or Eberle. If It's Hopkins we're going to need a 3rd line center back or we'll have to have to be making a 3 way trade so that we're getting Dumba + 3rd line center.

Oilers get - solid 3rd line center + Dumba
Wild get - hopkins
??? get - asset from wild.

If it's Eberle we're really risking leaving the right wing incredibly weak and it's offensive firepower could potentially be the lowest in the league among all other teams' right wingers. On top of that we're not going to get a really flashy 2nd asset. I'm pretty sure we'd be striking it rich if they added a 1st rounder.

If one of Puljujarvi or Yak show us that they can help carry the team we're half way to being able to cope without Eberle. I'm sold on Puljujarvi turning into a solid top 6er. He's just too big and athletic. I wouldn't be surprised if Yak turned into a decent top 6 winger. If one of them flops we could find a free agent, but we'd have to be very wary.

I'm more of a Hopkins fan than an Eberle fan, but I'd honestly trade Hopkins first. Trading him brings the possibility of fixing up our weak spot while leaving a quality stop gap measure. If the 3rd line center coming to us is an established vet I wouldn't even care if he was on the last year of his contract. I'd absolutely love to see a full NHL roster for the first time in a decade.

Lucic-McDavid-Eberle
Maroon-Drai-Yak
Pouliot-New guy-Yak
Kassian-Letesnu-Hendricks
Pacman/Lander

Klefbom-Larson
Davidson-Sekera
Nurse-Dumba
Fayne

Talbot
Monster

How does that not resemble an actual NHL team?

I'd put Maroon and Yak together and Pouliot and Puljujarvi together because if figure that'll make the lines more balanced. Drai is only gonna get stronger and Maroon is already suited for grunt work. Yak will have more space to get his offence going.

Puljujarvi plays the body and Pouliot has shown his ability to contribute. Potentially solid line. If that 3rd line C is good enough to be a 3rd line C on 1/2 of the teams in the league, our top 16 will be solid.

If Yakupov struggles, give Puljujarvi and Pouliot a shot. If Yak doesn't do anything with his 3rd line minutes, bring in Pacman in to play 3rd line RW. He has more offensive upside than Lander and we're not going to overplay Hendricks with those minutes.

all we heard for most of the time after the season was over leading up to the draft was a Nuge for Dumba/Coyle. from a money standpoint it made sense as the Wild's 2 players make around as much as Nuge does all by himself. but you can see why the Wild might not have been too wild about it. then after the draft I had been hearing about how the offer from the Wild was just Dumba for Nuge. you can see why the Oilers might not have been too wild about it. could be now that there's nothing going on between the two teams because the Wild just recently signed C Eric Staal, the center they needed and....well he'll save them !!

 

[Mcnotloilersfan]

It an interesting pre-season. We know we have 3 very capable top 4 dmen in Klef, Larsson and Sekera.

The odd thing is, we might not have a #4 at all, or we might be deep with a top 6 all capable.

Nurse - Might need time in the A, might come out in beast mode ready to go.

Reinhart - See Nurse

Davidson - Could drop off a bit, but if he trends up, he's a top 4 guy for sure.

Fayne - Came around again at the end of the year. Top 4 dman in the past, not too old and apparently coming back in great shape.

I'm not as worried as most. I think our D will surprise this year.

 

[thadd]

all we heard for most of the time after the season was over leading up to the draft was a Nuge for Dumba/Coyle. from a money standpoint it made sense as the Wild's 2 players make around as much as Nuge does all by himself. but you can see why the Wild might not have been too wild about it. then after the draft I had been hearing about how the offer from the Wild was just Dumba for Nuge. you can see why the Oilers might not have been too wild about it. could be now that there's nothing going on between the two teams because the Wild just recently signed C Eric Staal, the center they needed and....well he'll save them !!

Yeah Nuge for Dumba + Coye was all over HFboards, but it sounded like most people were against it and I don't recall the media talking about this trade happening. I do recall the media talking about Brodin being on the market.

The Wild might feel worse about a Nuge for Coyle + Dumba trade than the bitter fans felt about the Hall for Larson trade.

 

[Mr Positive]

Yeah Nuge for Dumba + Coye was all over HFboards, but it sounded like most people were against it and I don't recall the media talking about this trade happening. I do recall the media talking about Brodin being on the market.

The Wild might feel worse about a Nuge for Coyle + Dumba trade than the bitter fans felt about the Hall for Larson trade.

Wild fans hate the idea of trading Coyle. He's a physical player, and was very hot last season. I wonder if he's a bit of a fan favorite though, and that they overrate him a bit because he's a physical guy who can score. RNH still has 1C potential with the proper support (which we can't give him). The Wild don't have a true 1C, while all around them the central division only gets better, and Nashville got their 1C recently. There is the odd Wild fan who wants to make a major change, and I recall at least one guy really pushing for a trade for RNH. I don't recall how much he'd be willing to give up. I doubt that fanbase is ready for a trade that hurts them, similar to how we were hurt by the Hall trade (even though it was the right thing to do).

Coyle + Dumba/Brodin for RNH is not a huge stretch imo. They don't have other forwards in that range as potential toss-in that I'd really want.

 

[cbzblaze]

Wild fans hate the idea of trading Coyle. He's a physical player, and was very hot last season. I wonder if he's a bit of a fan favorite though, and that they overrate him a bit because he's a physical guy who can score. RNH still has 1C potential with the proper support (which we can't give him). The Wild don't have a true 1C, while all around them the central division only gets better, and Nashville got their 1C recently. There is the odd Wild fan who wants to make a major change, and I recall at least one guy really pushing for a trade for RNH. I don't recall how much he'd be willing to give up. I doubt that fanbase is ready for a trade that hurts them, similar to how we were hurt by the Hall trade (even though it was the right thing to do).

Coyle + Dumba/Brodin for RNH is not a huge stretch imo. They don't have other forwards in that range as potential toss-in that I'd really want.

I don't think Wild would do Coyle for RNH straight up, let alone adding.
Coyle is a big, physical player with a nice scoring touch around the net and is also on a better contract. As much as I like RNH, he hasn't shown anything significant to make me believe he's any better than Coyle till date. Realistically, both are probably better suited as good 2nd line players.

 

[cbzblaze]

Nurse & Davidson will open the season as the bottom pair. You don't play a rookie D as much as the oilers did last year, then stick him in the minors the next. He's part of the young core that needs to grow together.

 

[sportsdynasty]

Play him 25 minutes a night in AHL. Develop our prospects properly for once. Why are we rushing Nurse exactly? Play Reinhart instead on 3rd pairing.

 

[thadd]

Wild fans hate the idea of trading Coyle. He's a physical player, and was very hot last season. I wonder if he's a bit of a fan favorite though, and that they overrate him a bit because he's a physical guy who can score. RNH still has 1C potential with the proper support (which we can't give him). The Wild don't have a true 1C, while all around them the central division only gets better, and Nashville got their 1C recently. There is the odd Wild fan who wants to make a major change, and I recall at least one guy really pushing for a trade for RNH. I don't recall how much he'd be willing to give up. I doubt that fanbase is ready for a trade that hurts them, similar to how we were hurt by the Hall trade (even though it was the right thing to do).

Coyle + Dumba/Brodin for RNH is not a huge stretch imo. They don't have other forwards in that range as potential toss-in that I'd really want.

Another truth is that teams in the central don't like to give up players with size and physicality. They're the biggest meanest division in the world. I'd be shocked if the Wild traded Coyle away.

They might do Hopkins + Nurse for Coyle + Dumba, though.

And we don't want Brodin. At least not yet. He needs to show the world that he's learned how to NOT kill he's team's offence.

 

[snipes]

Another truth is that teams in the central don't like to give up players with size and physicality. They're the biggest meanest division in the world. I'd be shocked if the Wild traded Coyle away.

They might do Hopkins + Nurse for Coyle + Dumba, though.

And we don't want Brodin. At least not yet. He needs to show the world that he's learned how to NOT kill he's team's offence.

Nope. No chance.

First centre and D carry roughly the same value and Nugent-Hopkins>>Dumba. Dumba makes bone-headed plays regularly turning the puck over on stupid passes.

Second, Nurse is completely off the table.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Nurse just needs time to develop. Just whatever we do, we shouldn't shatter his confidence.

 

[shoop]

Play him 25 minutes a night in AHL. Develop our prospects properly for once. Why are we rushing Nurse exactly? Play Reinhart instead on 3rd pairing.

Completely agreed in playing Nurse 25 minutes a night in the AHL.

It makes no sense to have Reinhart on the third pairing. He's still a prospect who needs developin' too.

Maybe Oesterle on the third pairing or a free agent pick up, smallish type trade.

I actually did read the column in the OP. Good work!

 

[Dorian2]

So the question to me is 2 fold.

1 - Keep him in the NHL with limited time/minutes on the 3rd pairing
2 - Send him down to the AHL for equal or more minutes he played in the NHL last year on the #1 pairing.

Option #2 for me is a much better one IMO. To add to that, if Reinhart goes down/stays down there this year as well, they could both grow their games together and be the first guys called up, depending on their performance.

Option 2 sound better in theory to me, but there is a lot to be said about staying up and learning, even in a more limited capacity, the big boy pants game. His pants were too long and wide lst year on the Oil, so this year he would need skinny jeans to compliment his "skillz"!

 

[rockinghockey]

And Davidson most probably would have cleared the waivers at the beginning of last season.
I like Oesterle but no NHL GM is going to pick up a 24yr old Dman with only 23NHL games under his belt.

It was stated from Stauffer that scouts told him if EDM would of waived Davidson they would of grabbed him

 

[JoeCool16]

Let's have a look at him first. He had most of a season in the NHL, and has had a Summer to reflect on what went wrong and what he needs to work on. Maybe he comes back ready to go. Maybe he needs to still figure that out, and the AHL would be the best place for that.

 

[Young Lions*]

I don't think Wild would do Coyle for RNH straight up, let alone adding.
Coyle is a big, physical player with a nice scoring touch around the net and is also on a better contract. As much as I like RNH, he hasn't shown anything significant to make me believe he's any better than Coyle till date. Realistically, both are probably better suited as good 2nd line players.

*spits coffee*

Coyle is coming off a season where he hit 42 points shooting 15% and he's still miles behind the younger
RNH's production levels. They aren't even close. Coyle is a classic tweener, a guy who can play top six in a pinch but is best suited for a 3C role. Nuge (and I'm not even the biggest fan of his) is a high end 2C with 1C upside.

 

[UnicornONtheCOBB]

Nurse has the physical tools, he just needs to let his mental game catch up with his physical game and talent. I sure hope that it does, because if it does, he could be a very special player. This is a huge camp for him, he is going to have to earn his spot, if he doesn't win a spot, then he should go down to the AHL and play big minutes in every situation.

Right now, I see the locks as...

Larsson Klefbom Sekera Davidson

That leaves Fayne, Reinhart, Nurse, and any possible add on that the Oil still might bring in for the last 2 spots and the 1 extra D. This team is weak and fairly thin on D, I do believe that Chia will bring in at least 1 more Dman to play in the top 6.

 

[thadd]

Nope. No chance.

First centre and D carry roughly the same value and Nugent-Hopkins>>Dumba. Dumba makes bone-headed plays regularly turning the puck over on stupid passes.

Second, Nurse is completely off the table.

It doesn't matter if Nurse is on or off of the table. There's no incentive for the Wild to make the trade otherwise. Nuge is not getting you anything near Coyle + Dumba.

Nuge > Dumba
Nuge > Coyle

Nobody is going to disagree with you there but the fact remains that you're selling an undeveloped prospect that hasn't done anything in the NHL yet to a team that's trying to compete now in a deal that sends 2 players who have already proven that they can make solid contributions to a team.

I think it's fair to say that Nurse has more value to teams that are going into a rebuild, going through a rebuild or are pressed right up against the cap.

Would you trade Eberle for Jakob Chychrun? Chychrun was ranked 4th among north american skaters, has good size and a good toolbox. Looks like it's safe to bet on him turning into a solid top 4 d-man. I'm guessing no. He hasn't proven anything at the NHL level.

Sure, Nurse has shown us that he can skate fast and bully the hell out of most of the players, can rush the puck well in some situations and skate incredibly fast, but that's all. That doesn't make him a valuable asset at this point.

I'm not saying that I'd want to trade Hopkins + Nurse for Dumba and Coyle, I'm just saying that's what it would probably cost for the Wild to let go of both of those roster players.

 

[snipes]

It doesn't matter if Nurse is on or off of the table. There's no incentive for the Wild to make the trade otherwise. Nuge is not getting you anything near Coyle + Dumba.

Nuge > Dumba
Nuge > Coyle

Nobody is going to disagree with you there but the fact remains that you're selling an undeveloped prospect that hasn't done anything in the NHL yet to a team that's trying to compete now in a deal that sends 2 players who have already proven that they can make solid contributions to a team.

I think it's fair to say that Nurse has more value to teams that are going into a rebuild, going through a rebuild or are pressed right up against the cap.

Would you trade Eberle for Jakob Chychrun? Chychrun was ranked 4th among north american skaters, has good size and a good toolbox. Looks like it's safe to bet on him turning into a solid top 4 d-man. I'm guessing no. He hasn't proven anything at the NHL level.

Sure, Nurse has shown us that he can skate fast and bully the hell out of most of the players, can rush the puck well in some situations and skate incredibly fast, but that's all. That doesn't make him a valuable asset at this point.

I'm not saying that I'd want to trade Hopkins + Nurse for Dumba and Coyle, I'm just saying that's what it would probably cost for the Wild to let go of both of those roster players.

That's a good post. I guess it comes down to Nurse having more value to us than anyone else.

Develop your own top 4 they've been telling us, and that's what we are doing. Nurse will be a mainstay on our 2nd pairing in the coming years.

 

[ohheyhemsky]

Nurse just needs time to develop. Just whatever we do, we shouldn't shatter his confidence.

Oh, great. The one thing we're good at.