It is time to waive Darnell Nurse

With a 3 day layoff and no action till Monday I thought I’d address the elephant in the room. Darnell Nurse needs to go! He is overpaid, not very good and, quite honestly, awful at hockey. Clearly living off the name and reputation his sister Kia built!

Originally I was going to write an article about exploring trade options for him. Let’s face it, no one would want this bum. We’d have to throw in a first and/or a Broberg AND retain salary just to get a team to even consider such a poor player. Eg. The Calgary Flames would probably want to give us Lucic back, our first round pick and for us to retain salary. The Flames are smart like everyone else and realize he has no value.

So it’s time to put him on waivers. He won’t be picked up of course because he doesn’t belong in the NHL. No team would be able to find a use for him in their Top 6. Especially in the North as it is filled with the best D in the entire NHL. Then we can put him on unconditional waivers and get rid of him for good. We know he won’t find NHL work. I doubt an AHL team would sign him. Maybe as a bottom pairer? His best bet would be the Liga Mexicana Elite de Hockey (LMEH) where he could work for pesos. However they only have 4 teams and I’m not sure he’d be one of the 24 best D in Mexico City. Also, they are shut down due to covid right now.

He’s robbed the Oiler’s of millions of dollars. I hope he has invested and can retire peacefully far from hockey. I have it on good authority that on off days he likes to walk around Edmonton without a mask trying to hug people.

I know there are complete amateurs that don’t understand the game that might point out he was drafted and developed by us. That he actually wants to be an Oiler and a part of the core. Of course he does! We’re the only Top 6 in the world that would employee him and pay him this much.

I get there are morons who might counter with the fact he leads the league in goals by D right now. Did you see that goal last night? He took a muffin of a shot on net and the Habs felt so bad for him that they actually put it in the net for him! The charity needs to stop! Small sample size is all this is.

The uneducated might point out he never misses a game and plays every night season after season. When you play as soft and an unengaged game as Nurse, you stand no chance of injury. He’s a perimeter player like Eberle. Soft like Hemsky. Out of shape like Penner. More bums that needed to leave! He’s overhyped like Petry and Dubnyk. Zero chance he could find a spot anywhere else. He will fail just like Reider, Strome and Lucic did.

Please don’t try to use basic stats like points, minutes, goals or assists. Don’t even try with +/-. The REAL stats, the SMART people.. they all know, Darnell sucks! I even heard a rumour that Team Canada is considering him for the 2022 best on best Olympics. Why on earth would the Oiler’s want a player that can make Team Canada? I totally understand why this would upset the Oil fanbase.

We all know that all his points are because he plays with McDavid and Bear. Every single one. We also know that if he is on the ice for a goal against that it is entirely his fault. It’s indisputable that leading a team in minutes is just more proof that the coach (including at the World and World Junior Championships) also needs to be fired. You might point out every coach Nurse has had always seems to give him a lot of minutes... clowns, everyone last one!

I’ve seen countless retweets illustrating that Caleb Jones is much better than Nurse. Lagesson is better than Nurse. Ethan Bear is better than Nurse. Slater Koekoek is obviously better. Bouchard (who plays RD) is also better than LD Nurse and could take his job on line 1 yesterday. Don’t even get me started about how much better Brogerg is than him on LD. Klefbom is superior as well, especially this season. I didn’t even mention Dimitri Samorukov who is also a better LD than Nurse today. They’re all better and it is simply FACT. Former Oilers Ladislav Smid and David Musil are also much better than him today.

Those of you with a basic grasp of biology might try and point out that he’s entering his athletic peak and that D tend to better around the age of 26. That is hogwash. The man is on a heater and it is unsustainable. Everyone knows the Norris nominees are always around 21 years old. 26 is past the prime of an NHL Dman. Just like goalies, Dmen start declining around 26. Time to hang em up!

Just look at last years nominees: 18 year old Roman Josi, 20 year old John Carlson and 19 year old Victor Hedman. None of these guys will be any good when they are 30. D in the NHL is a young mans game which is why it’s pertinent to give all the minutes to younger D like Jones, Lagesson and Broberg over Nurse. Just look how much worse 33 year old Petry got after leaving Edmonton at the same age.

Just look at this collection of losers around him from last years season:

Or the season before:

It gets worse when you see the last 2 seasons combined!

McDavid and Bear should both win the Hart Trophy for getting Nurse into the Top 25 since the 2018 season started! Nurse is like a big piece of luggage that has to be carried around.

His last 5 seasons in Edmonton have been a trainwreck! Everybody hates small sample sizes like this years total heater. Here are his awful stats going back to 2015.

There is no way a 26 year old Dman can improve upon these stats. I can’t believe he’s been here this long. Must have some real comprising photos hidden somewhere.

Good bye Nurse, your time is over. Good luck in Mexico when this Covid thing ends!

Good riddance!