Yesterday, the Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Darnell Nurse to a massive, eight-year deal with a $9.25M cap hit. Nurse had a very strong 2020-21 regular season, scoring 16 goals and 20 assists in 56 games. His 16 goals were the second-most for a defenceman last season.
Doc is in! ✔️
The #Oilers have signed Darnell Nurse to an eight-year contract extension.#LetsGoOilers
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) August 6, 2021
This deal is the latest in a chain of very expensive, high-risk deals for a defensemen during this off-season. Big stars like Cal Makar and Dougie Hamilton got paid, as well as some slightly lower tier players, including Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets and his former teammate Seth Jones of the Chicago Blackhawks. All signed deals with a cap hit more than $9 million. Given the relatively young age of Nurse, his contract is still projected to be pretty good by its end.
Another very expensive contract for a defenceman that carries a lot of risk.
With that being said, if Nurse plays like he did last year – for every season going forward – he has the potential to live up to his new contract. pic.twitter.com/hdwgTvdAVQ— dom at the athletic (@domluszczyszyn) August 6, 2021
The overheated defencemen market however could affect the Tampa Bay Lightning in the future. The team managed to keep their defensive core for the next two seasons, but the summer of 2023 will be pretty tough for them as two of their top blueliners – Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak – will need to be re-signed. Sergachev especially will be up for a big raise and could potentially ask in the range of seven million per season or more. His offensive production hasn’t increased as much as it was expected, however his 30 points last season still ranks in top-30 by total points amongst other defencemen.
On the other hand Erik Cernak has emerged into a shutdown defenceman role over the past seasons and his next contract might be very similar to Adam Pelech’s, who signed an eight-year, $5.75M AAV extension with the New York Islanders yesterday. According to Evolving-hockey.com Pelech has a better offensive impact than Cernak, but their defensive metrics are pretty much similar.
Given the Lightning’s current cap crunches and a slowly rising salary cap, both of those extensions could put the Lightning into a very tough situation. Earlier this week Geo analysed a potential Lightning salary cap situation for the next three seasons.
Where a steadily rising salary cap puts the Tampa Bay Lightning #GoBolts https://t.co/zjRU9isAyX
— Raw Charge, a Champa Bay Lightning web site (@RawCharge) August 5, 2021
Lightning/Hockey news
Pat Maroon showed up at the St. Louis Cardinals game yesterday and was honored to throw the first pitch.
Getting to throw a first pitch to Ozzie is every St. Louis kid’s dream ❤️ pic.twitter.com/44gvQErauv
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 7, 2021
The Anaheim Ducks re-signed Isac Lundestrom and Sam Steel to new contracts.
We’ve put pen to paper with @isaclundestr and @ssteel23! #FlyTogether
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) August 7, 2021
The Seattle Kraken have signed defenceman Vince Dunn to a two-year contract.
We’ve got a *Dunn* deal! 🤝
The #SeaKraken have agreed to terms with defenseman @vince_dunn on a two-year contract ($4M AAV) → https://t.co/0ECmFnbspY pic.twitter.com/RlM7FNem5W
— Seattle Kraken (@SeattleKraken) August 6, 2021