It's become the easiest offseason move to suggest in Edmonton. From debates online and on sports radio, it's one that plenty of frustrated fans have already made up in their minds.
Trade Darnell Nurse.
After back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Final ended in heartbreak, an early first-round exit they'd like to take back, and with the pressure to capitalize on Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl's few combined years left, the Oilers' highest-paid defenceman has once again become the focal point of criticism.
It's hard to blame fans when put like that.
Nurse carries a $9.25-million cap hit through 2030, and while there are nights when he looks every bit like the first-pairing defenceman and minute-muncher that earned him that contract. Unfortunately, there are also nights when the mistakes become too much to ignore, and everyone starts talking about what he brings to the lineup and whether the money attached to his name is preventing the club from addressing other needs.
That's fair.
Contracts matter, especially for teams trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the salary cap.
But turning the page on Nurse and actually finding someone willing to take on the contract are two very different things, and that reality tends to get lost in the emotion that follows another disappointing spring.
Players with several years remaining on deals worth more than $9 million per season don't get moved very often, particularly when they own full no-movement clauses and have enough leverage to determine where they are willing to go.
Even if Nurse were open to the conversation, which is far from guaranteed, Edmonton would still need to find a team willing to absorb that commitment while giving the Oilers something useful in return, all without retaining a meaningful amount of salary.
I'd say good luck, but they'd need a little bit more that that.
But then comes a question you might not be so eager to answer.
What exactly are the Oilers replacing?
Because for all the criticism that comes with Nurse's contract, and there has been plenty of it, Nurse still logs heavy minutes against good teams, kills penalties, skates exceptionally well for a player his size, and has managed to stay healthy while playing one of the most physically demanding positions in hockey.
Those players aren't sitting around on the free-agent market waiting to be signed.
They're expensive, imperfect, and difficult to replace.
The Oilers experienced that reality first-hand when Mattias Ekholm missed time during the playoffs, exposing just how quickly the blue line can go from a position of relative strength to one with far too many weaknesses.
Jake Walman proved to be a terrific addition, and Evan Bouchard, for all his flaws, like Nurse, continues to grow into one of the league's most dangerous offensive defencemen, but removing Nurse from the equation would create another hole for Stan Bowman to fill at a time when it's just not that doable.
That doesn't mean the organization shouldn't investigate every possibility.
Successful teams don't get complacent, and if a trade presents itself that improves the roster both now and in the future, Bowman owes it to the group to make the call.
History suggests those kinds of deals are rare, though.
Vegas has made blockbuster moves, but they've generally involved players with shorter commitments. Florida has found value by identifying specific fits and moving with conviction. Even contenders with deep pockets and aggressive front offices understand how difficult it is to relocate contracts of this size.
Which leads to a possibility that many fans may not want to hear.
There's a reasonable chance Darnell Nurse begins next season exactly where he finished the last one, wearing an Oilers sweater and playing major minutes.
And maybe that's not the disaster some make it out to be.
The Oilers have bigger problems to solve than finding ways to subtract useful players, and the blueprint that has carried them to two consecutive Stanley Cup Finals probably deserves more respect than it's getting at the moment.
Because while trading Darnell Nurse might sound simple, finding another defenceman capable of handling his workload, his responsibilities and his availability every night is considerably more complicated.
That's the part of the conversation that often gets ignored.
And it's the part Stan Bowman has to live in.
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