After an epic season and playoff run that will be talked about for ages, the Edmonton Oilers just missed out on their ultimate goal of the Stanley Cup victory by a margin thinner than Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ playoff beard. Between expiring contracts, trades, and buyouts a significant number of Oilers may not be around next season. An Edmonton Oilers roster turnover is on the horizon.
In Part One, we looked at the forward positions and behind the scenes personnnel. Here, we’ll focus on the defence and goalies.
The State of the Union Addressing the Potential Edmonton Oilers Offseason Roster Turnover
According to Capfriendly.com, the Oilers have just $10 million in available cap space with only 14 players signed for the coming season. Those 14 include seven forwards (Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan McLeod, and Derek Ryan), five defencemen (Darnell Nurse, Mattias Ekholm, Evan Bouchard, Cody Ceci, and Brett Kulak) and two goalies (Stuart Skinner and Jack Campbell).
Who will be staying and who will be going from the remaining roster? And who might leave in trades and buyouts? Always keeping in mind that according to Oilers broadcast voice, insider, and employee, Bob Stauffer, negotiations for Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard’s contract extensions are already underway. He expects those to total $40 million dollars as their contracts expire over the next two seasons.
Examining The Oilers Defence
Ekholm, Bouchard and Kulak are three Oilers defencemen who are likely going to be sticking around . Not everyone else will be. This is the first part of the Oilers roster turnover that we will examine.
Darnell Nurse
If Connor Brown was the forward who received the most abuse from Oilers fans, on defence it was Nurse. Like Brown, most of it stems from value for money. Nurse makes $9.25 million through the 2029-2030 season. That’s first-pair money. The problem is that Nurse isn’t playing like a first-pair defenceman. The Ekholm-Bouchard pairing has taken over that role.
Nurse has often lost coverage in his own end, made bad reads on the opposition blue line and hasn’t settled in with a defence partner that he works well together as a second pairing. Nurse is neither a shut down defender nor an offensive threat. He is a in-betweener, a hybrid. Tough as nails, he isn’t a big hitter. He has trouble making that all-important first three-foot pass out of his own zone. Nurse can transport the puck well, but sometimes seems unsure what to do when he reaches the offensive blue line.
But Wait, There’s More!
Nurse and his partner, Ceci, were torched in the playoffs. The team couldn’t keep that pairing together. The coaching staff decided to pair Nurse up with Philip Broberg, who spent most of the season in the minors and was only added onto the starting lineup halfway through the playoffs. Tellingly, it was Broberg who was tasked with playing on his offside, not the veteran Nurse. Usually, it is the other way around. It is much harder to play that way.
Bouchard is due for a contract renewal that is rumoured to be $10 million. A team can’t have two defencemen making that much money. At this stage, Bouchard is the better bet to cover that investment. Something has to give. The problem is that Nurse has a full no-movement clause going through to 2027 that he won’t be eager to waive. He is very much a part of the tight McDavid-Draisaitl leadership core. Perhaps a trade to his hometown area Toronto Maple Leafs could tempt him. Or joining his old junior hockey coach, Sheldon Keefe, with New Jersey Devils.
Cody Ceci
Ceci has been a very serviceable defenceman for a decade with the Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins. He has one more season at $3.25 million remaining on his contract. This is a very reasonable contract for a second-pairing defenseman. Unfortunately, Ceci’s play didn’t warrant that position on the Oilers. Others passed him on the depth chart as the season wore on. Ceci soon found himself on the third pair. There was talk of sitting him. $3.25 million is very expensive to pay for a third-pair defender. The Oilers have other, cheaper options there.
Kulak is a lock on the third pair, often moving up to second when called on and upping his game year after year in the playoffs. He makes half a million less than Ceci. Vinnie Desharnais, another third-pair stalwart, made only $762,500. Broberg’s hit was only slightly higher. Troy Stecher, who played surprisingly well when coming over from Arizona late in the season, made only $1.1 million. Ceci has no trade refusal rights on his contract. Given Nurse’s situation, combined with the need for new contracts for Draisaitl, McDavid and Bouchard, Ceci is a prime candidate for a trade.
Vincent Desharnais
Desharnais is a black swan. Nobody in Edmonton saw him coming. A giant of a man not drafted until the 7th round, he didn’t become a regular on the team until the age of 28. There just aren’t many players in the league like him. You can’t teach Desharnais’ skill set. Few players have “Seaweed’s” blend of size, physicality, shot blocking and defensive shutdown. In scrums, you often see him grabbing two opposing players by the scruff of the neck at the same time and clearing the pile. He has improved his puck handling skills immensely, makes the first pass much better now, and is a stalwart on a Oilers penalty kill that was historic in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.
He is a UFA coming off a $762,500 salary and due a substantial raise. A late bloomer eligible to leverage into his first chance to make a good NHL salary before he ages out, Desharnais has reportedly indicated that he is not willing to take a team-friendly deal and will test the market. Did the Oilers coaching staff remove him from the playoff lineup in favour of Broberg due to injury or performance? Either way, it will be a loss for the Oilers when he likely leaves.
The Professor, Mary Ann and the Rest
Broberg is going to be a top-three defenseman on this team for years. An RFA with arbitration rights, the Oilers will jump at the chance to extend him. Hopefully, for long term so that they avoid the salary cap issues they ran into when they were unable to sign Bouchard long-term due to cap restraints. A contract like retired fellow Swede Oskar Klefbom’s deal would be music. Reports are that Stecher might want to sign next year where he has a better chance of being a regular than he was with Edmonton, but some subtractions might just do that in Edmonton.
In Goal
Local boy, Stuart Skinner’s contract runs through 2026-2027. He was a great 3rd-round pick by the team, who traded up in the draft to get him. Goalies develop late. Skinner is only 25. He spent only parts of three seasons in the minors. The plan was to season him slowly while Jack Campbell carried the load. Campbell dropped it. Skinner picked it up, and hasn’t looked back since. He was a Calder Memorial Trophy finalist for the best rookie in the league. He had better numbers than his superstar Florida Panthers opposite number, Sergei Bobrovsky, this Stanley Cup Finals.
What stands out with Skinner is his calm, composed manner between the pipes. It has gotten even better after he started working the “goalie whisperer” George Mumford, a well-respected sports psychologist. Mumford is known for his expertise in helping athletes manage pressure and improve their mental game. Skinner isn’t going anywhere at a value contract of $2.6 million and just starting to reach his potential.
Jack Campbell
Campbell is probably GM Ken Holland’s worst decision after Nurse’s contract. Granted, there were extenuating circumstances for both. The Oiler’s tight cap situation meant Nurse was given bridge contracts until he was finally eligible for full player rights. That was the season Nurse was on the Oilers first pairing and similar first-pairing defensemen such as Seth Jones and Zach Werensky had already set the market. Holland had to sign him or lose him for nothing.
Similarly, Holland had bad timing with Campbell. The team desperately needed a first string goalie while Stuart Skinner developed. The goalie pickings were slim that summer and Holland chose the best worst-choice. It hasn’t panned out. He finished his first season with a dismal 0.888 save percentage and a 3.42 goals against average (GAA). If 2022-23 was dismal, 2023-24 was even worse for Campbell. The team only stuck with him for five games before he was sent to the minors for good. No surprise. He had a 4.50 GAA and 0.873 save percentage up in the big leagues.
Campbell has been disastrous in Edmonton, being buried in the minors and not even considered being brought up during the year. His no-movement $5 million salary has three years left on it. Capologists say he is a prime candidate for a contract buyout.
The Verdict
There is likely to be considerable churn of the current Oilers defence over the summer, with only Ekholm, Bouchard, Kulak and Broberg “sure” bets to remain on the defence. Stuart will be coming back as goalie, Campbell gone, and Calvin Pickard, who was admirable as Skinner’s backup all year, a good bet to return.
It’s certainly going to be a chess game filling the roster for the Oilers with just $10 million available and only 14 contracts filled. In the words of the NORAD war-simulating super computer Joshua to Matthew Broderick in the 1983 movie WarGames, “Shall we play a game?”
Main Photo: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
