Edmonton Oilers contract no longer listed among worst deals in NHL

Nurse has struggled to live up to the $9.25M annual salary of his contract since signing the deal in 2021. In reality he's a top 4 defender making the money of a top 2, which has led the Oilers to ask Nurse to waive his no-trade clause.

Every offseason NHL analysts at the Athletic rank the best and worst contracts in the league, and Darnell Nurse has found himself on the wrong side of the ledger in the past. This year he's been moved out of the worst 10 contracts - but was still included as an honourable mention.

5 other defenceman appeared on the list, and it's worth noting that Nurse has a higher salary than every one of them. Ivan Provorov, Brady Skjei, Nicolas Hague, Ryan Pulock, and former Oiler Cody Ceci all made the list.

Nurse's play did improve throughout the regular season, but problems began to crop up again as the playoffs wore on. The rising salary cap and other defenceman signing worsened deals may have helped Nurse's placing on this list, too.

Questionable decisions from Nurse under pressure cost the team multiple times, especially in games with a slim margin for error. If his play doesn't improve more next season, the Oilers need to consider playing Jake Walman more in the playoffs.

Nurse's no-trade clause will relax to a modified no-trade list in the 2027-28 season. It's very likely the Oilers will look to trade him by that time unless something drastically changes with the organization.