Edmonton Oilers need to fix the penalty kill by benching a core player

Though the Oilers are not known for their penalty kill necessarily, the numbers show that it should be better, if not for Darnell Nurse. This season, they're ranked 13th overall with an 81.5% efficiency.

With the Nurse on the ice during the PK, Edmonton is allowing scoring chances against and expected goals against at double the league rate; that's 2G against the Oilers on the PK to other teams' 1G.

Mattias Ekholm has been on the PK for a total of 36 minutes and Evan Bouchard Evan Bouchard 35, and allow slightly better than league average in goals against. Nurse, however, plays the 3rd-most minutes on the PK with 27, but again, allows twice as many goals and chances against.

In other words, without Nurse on the PK, Edmonton's kill efficiency would be better than league average and likely top-10 in the league.

And it's not just the 2025-26 season. Since 2022-23, 153 NHL defencemen have been on the ice for 3 hours-plus for the penalty kill. Only 7 of them allowed more goals against/60 than Darnell Nurse.

It's surprising that Darnell has continued to play on the PK, given his inefficiency on it. Yet, head coach Kris Knoblauch continues to send him over the boards in 4v5 situations.

Given that the Oilers have allowed twice as many goals against with Nurse on the ice since Knoblauch was hired, you can excuse a person for asking, why?

Why has Darnell Nurse spent more time killing penalties than any other Oilers' defenseman since Kris Knoblauch was hired, when he is a clear liability.