Darnell Nurse could see major demotion next season, per Oilers analyst
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The Edmonton Oilers are expected to bring back their entire group of defenceman next season, but the biggest change may be the deployment with Darnell Nurse.
In the playoffs, the Edmonton Oilers continued to use Nurse as their number 3 defenceman, getting higher priority matchups and ice time than Jake Walman. Given the success that Walman had with the Oilers, that should flip next year.
Oilers analyst believes Jake Walman will take some minutes from Darnell Nurse next season
Oilers analyst Allan Mitchell has did a deep dive on defence stats relative to pairings, and Jake Walman stands out as one of the Oilers most effective defenders - but he mostly played third pairing minutes with Klingberg while Nurse struggled.
With changes to the coaching staff and another year of this data, if Nurse continues to struggle on the second pair, they could demote him down to the third pairing.
The Oilers deployed Nurse for 444 minutes (five-on-five) during the playoffs; Walman played 369 minutes in the game state. Matchups were part of the reason - the coaching staff clearly trusted Nurse more than Walman, Ekholm or Kulak - but in the clear light of day, that decision is open to question.
Pushing Walman up the depth chart, and fading Nurse's minutes (especially when away from Walman) are key tweaks that need to be considered for 2025-26.
- Allan Mitchell
Pushing Walman up the depth chart, and fading Nurse's minutes (especially when away from Walman) are key tweaks that need to be considered for 2025-26.
- Allan Mitchell
In the playoffs, once again, Darnell Nurse seemed to lose some of the progress he made in-season, and poor decision making under pressure returned to make some ugly shifts.
Thankfully due the amount of talent on the Oilers blue line, there's tons of options the team can try to elevate Walman and shelter Nurse.
Mitchell believes the Oilers should run Walman on Nurse's right side, but perhaps that Walman should see the lion's share of the minutes. Dropping Nurse to the third pair will never happen, but reducing his responsibility in the second pair would help.
The Oilers have also already asked Nurse to waive his no-trade clause, so perhaps along with a demotion, there would be mutual agreement that a fresh start elsewhere would be best.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 15 | 309 ANSWERS Darnell Nurse could see major demotion next season, per Oilers analyst Do you think Nurse should be on the third pair? | ||
| Yes | 229 | 74.1 % |
| No | 80 | 25.9 % |
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