Oilers Re-Sign Nurse

With Josh Morrissey signing in Winnipeg yesterday, it seemed like only a matter of time before Darnell Nurse was going to get his deal, as they were very comparable in their numbers, age and position.  Indeed, that was the case, as Nurse and the Edmonton Oilers agreed on a 2-year, $6.4 million bridge deal on Monday.

The 23-year old defenseman was the last key restricted free agent for the Oilers this summer and with the deal done, he can finally join his teammates at training camp and get into some preseason action before too long.

Last season, Nurse finished with 26 points in 82 games for the club, good enough for 68th among all defensemen in scoring, well within the pool worthiness conversation.  He'll be welcome addition to the training camp roster and not having missed too much of camp, it shouldn't be much of a transition period for him to get back up to speed and catch up to the rest of the crew.

Cap-wise, the Oilers will now have to use some of the flexibility that Andrej Sekera's long-term injury affords, as they will creep around the salary cap ceiling, by my count.  The Oilers could avoid using the LTIR, if they were to only go with a 22-man active roster at the start of the season, so there are some workarounds that the team can do, but they are not in the worst of shape, as of today.  They can certainly manage with what they have in front of them.