CapFriendly team waits until there is enough basic contract information to create an official contract thread, in order to avoid misinformation.

TWO-YEAR TERM FOR NURSE WILL WALK HIM TO UFA BUT THE GOAL FOR NURSE AND EDM IS TO, IDEALLY, DO A LONG-TERM EXTENSION IN THE SUMMER OF 2021. THE SHORT TERM DEAL GETS EDM OVER SOME SALARY CAP RESTRAINTS NEXT SEASON.

— BOB MCKENZIE (@TSNBOBMCKENZIE) FEBRUARY 10, 2020

This sets a horrible precedent for Ethan Bear's contract negotiation.

Don't get me wrong ... they're obviously at two very different points in their careers.

But buying zero UFA years from Nurse essentially puts Bear in the most comparable position he could possibly be in.

The two players have similar stats in every major category this year (goals, points, P/GP, ATOI, etc) and Bear can argue he has better career averages at a younger age.

Bears extension probably just jumped into one of the following ranges:

$5,000,000 x 2 years (RFA expiry)
$6,000,000 x 4 years (UFA expiry)
$7,000,000 x 6 years (UFA expiry)

gah what were you thinking Ken should've done for 5 mil

i understand because there could be a source like pierre lebrun saying that nurse got 7 mil fsr and then people would go insane

Thanks

Nurse's camp did well in controlling his future! At 5.6 there's a "hometown" discount, but it's not cheap either.

Yo, if you click the twitter button in the message box you can link the tweet directly:

Two-year term for Nurse will walk him to UFA but the goal for Nurse and EDM is to, ideally, do a long-term extension in the summer of 2021. The short term deal gets EDM over some salary cap restraints next season.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) February 10, 2020

Still, I don't think giving up the RFA status was the best idea.

LOL ... "Hometown Discount"

On a 2 year contract with a $5,600,000 cap-hit that makes him a UFA at 27 years old.

This AAV implies that Nurse would be worth $8,000,000 - $9,000,000 on a long-term deal.

You can't even call it a bridge deal since it's got a UFA expiry.

Here's the thing though: in 2 years, Jones, Broberg and Samorukov will all be pushing for Nurse's job. And do you really want to sign a 27-year-old to a long-term deal? I don't think he'll have much leverage at that point.

It appears Nurse wanted a short term deal. And if true, what choice did the Oilers have? Nurse asks for arbitration, and then it's either a one year or two year deal, so the Oilers wouldn't have much of lower cap hit if at all.

It would depend on how he's playing I guess ... 27 isn't that old for a defensemen.

Leverage won't be applicable when his contract expires ... it generally requires some type of constraint that the leverage helps you maneuver through.

Nurse will have 100% leverage over Edmonton ... and the freedom to do whatever he wants as a UFA.

The thing I don't like about your scenario is that a 7th overall pick will be walking out the door about 3-years after he became a top-4 defensemen.

I don't like it either... my point about leverage is that he won't be able to get more than FMV out of Holland. He won't be able to demand more AAV or term than is reasonable because his replacement will be standing right there.

Well we can only speculate the true intentions of either side. if we take what has been said at face value, so what if its two years? He wants to stay in Edm and by him signing short term at less money than expected, he's given Holland time to use the extra cap on better players. Then when his contract is up along with other on the roster, they'll have more "free cap" to sign him at the term and $ amount he's looking for. They can sign an extension as early July 2021 that a little over a year from now.

I know we've been trained to automatically assume the most nefarious scenario possible but its not always the case. If the talks were amiable and there no reason to believe negative, it could work just fine.

If he wanted this deal to be short as possible in order to cash in in free agency as much as possible, than yeah Holland made a mistake by agreeing to this deal IMO and should start at least discussing/planning his future trade already.

I'm sure that's what Nurse and his advisors are telling Holland but I bet their plans for 2022 are to be ABE -- Anywhere But Edmonton

No. Nurse, Draisaitl and McDavid are best friends - a fact that played into Holland's decision to "walk him" to free agency. He genuinely wants to be an Oiler, at least while those guys are Oilers. The thing that is working against him is that the Oilers have 3 LHD prospects at various stages of development who could well be fighting for Nurse's job in two years: Jones, Samorukov and Broberg. I don't think Nurse will have the leverage that he thinks he'll have come 2022. He'll have to sign for market value.

Easy to say to sign him long term But Nurse maybe didn't want a long term deal....Just like Trouba, he wanted free agency as soon as possible. Trouba had all the leverage to get be a UFA in two years. But you're right about Oilers cap. The Oilers and other perennial non player teams shouldn't be near the cap. Though I'm hoping the Oilers do make the playoffs this years.

They could have traded him for someone who wants to be there long term IMO.

Many people are saying Nurse wants to be there long term and that he wants to play with McDavid and Draisaitl for the rest of time. I think it's more likely that he was asking for huge money on a long term deal and Holland couldn't afford it in the short term. The just kicked the can down the road.

Teams who are fighting for a playoff spot just can't trade away a valuable member of their team...like their second Dman. Playoff contenders don't trade away upcoming UFAs, cause they are worried about them "walking". It's making your team as good as possible for the current season, Heck playoff teams trade futures for upcoming UFAs for a playoff push.

One of the worst defensemen in hockey history, gets over $5 million.

Remember when we said this Nurse contract was overpay
OH MAN