Oilers' Nurse Silently Had His Best Offensive Year Ever

Edmonton Oilers number one defenceman Darnell Nurse just set career highs in several different production categories.

The Edmonton Oilers' only $9M defenceman Darnell Nurse just had the best offensive season of his entire career. The defender received a lot of criticism this past season for costly mistakes that have ended up as goals against the Oilers.

Despite these costly errors, the Oilers' blue liner brings a lot of value to the lineup and is not easily replaceable. He set a new career high in points, played less on the power play and performed better than last year in a few defensive metrics.

Nurse put together a 43 point campaign, beating his previous career high of 41 points from the 2018-19 season.  He did this while playing 23:30 time on ice (TOI) per game, down 1:30 from last season. Nurse also took the same number of shots this season as he did last year. 

Not only did he have a career high in points, he also had the most points for a defenceman on the Oilers. He had three more points than Evan Bouchard and 11 points more than the next highest scoring blue liner, Mattias Ekholm. The most impressive thing about this production is Nurse's lack of power play time.

Nurse has been a staple of the second power play unit for several years. Before Tyson Barrie and Bouchard, Nurse had a stint on the top power play. In 2018-19 he averaged 1:51 of TOI on the power play. He only had nine power play points that season despite the deployment. 

In 2022-23 Nurse only played 75 minutes on the power play. The last time he played less than 76 power play minutes was in 2017-18 when he skated just under 39 minutes with the man advantage. Nurse has never been a prolific power play producer. He delivers his best results while at even strength. Four of his 43 points this year were either on the penalty kill or power play. This is where Nurse has his greatest offensive value.

The addition of Ekholm to the Oilers blue line will be a huge weight off of Nurse's shoulders. He can allow Nurse to play less and be a more effective player at even strength. If Ekholm can play more on the penalty kill instead of Nurse, that can allow Nurse to play more to his puck carrying strengths.

This coming year will be another big one for the 6-foot-4 defender. Nurse should continue producing at 5x5 like he always has. But because of additions to the blue line, expect him to get even closer to that 50 point threshold.