Before we begin, let’s be clear: This is not a rumour. It was a suggestion mentioned by Nick Kypreos in Toronto yesterday. He mentioned the Oilers need a scoring winger and Mitch Marner might be a fit. There is no doubt the Oilers could use some offence right now. He said it would take Darnell Nurse to make the deal.
Everyone will have an opinion on if they would do the trade or not. Trade debates are fantastic, but when I mentioned I wouldn’t do the trade, I was intrigued by some of the responses.
This one really caught my eye.
The Oilers absolutely wouldn't do it but that's more on who is GMing than it is on the value. Nurse is fine and I'm less hyped on Marner than most, but the gap in upside here is still canyon-like. https://t.co/jz7lHRGmOS
— Jeff Veillette (@JeffVeillette) November 7, 2017
“The gap in upside here is still canyon-like.”
He feels Marner has infinitely more potential in his play than Nurse does.
It is interesting how often hockey fans and media (myself included) assume one good season early in a career means the player will automatically put up more points in the future. I’ve learned it doesn’t happen as often as you think.
Okay, let’s look at these two players.
In Nurse’s rookie season, he was on a bad Edmonton Oilers team. They finished 29th in the NHL.
They were bad because a rookie defenceman played the second most minutes on the blueline. For the final 50 games, Nurse had to play mainly in the top pairing with Andrej Sekera, and Sekera had to play the right side. Sekera isn’t as good on the right side. Unsurprisingly, Nurse struggled and his numbers weren’t great.
However, It has always perplexed me how many people used those numbers for Nurse as a projection for his future. Because he struggled in a top-pairing role as a rookie, many felt he’d never be a top-pairing defender. Evaluating defencemen is extremely difficult, and to this point I don’t think Corsi or CF% is accurate enough to give us a good future projection. I’m not sure any stat is, to be honest, because there are many unexpected variables. Playing defence as a rookie is much harder than playing wing, or even centre, and considering the development curve of players is very different, it is hard to project where many rookie D-men will be in four or five seasons. I’ve failed many times trying to do so, but it won’t stop me from trying again.
The elite players are usually very good to great right away. Nurse is likely never going to be a top-15 D-man in the NHL, but I’d argue he has a lot of upside.
Nurse is an elite skating defenceman. He’s also big and mean. He is quite good at moving the puck and he can transport the puck up ice better than most D-men in the league, but prior to this season the play often died on his stick once he entered the offensive zone. But that isn’t happening now. He is making smarter plays. Why?
“I’ve learned to take a deep breath and relax,” said Nurse. “Especially the last two years, I’d get in the O-zone and my first thought was I just didn’t want to make a mistake. At this point (now) I’m thinking, ‘take a deep breath, see a play you can make,’ and that is very different than thinking ‘get it off my stick, get it off my stick.’ That is the biggest thing, just being more calm, assess the play and if there is nothing there just get the puck to the net or put in a spot where a teammate can get it.”
He has also spent the past two summers working with skills coach Adam Oates. Nurse spent time working on his puckhandling skills, but also on how to assess the ice when entering the offensive zone. It is paying off.
I’d wager more on Nurse never being a true elite offensive D-man, because they are rare and so far he doesn’t play on the powerplay, but he has the potential to become a very productive blueliner at even strength.
Only two D-men had more than 40 even strength points last season — Brent Burns (50) and Erik Karlsson (42). Karlsson is almost in a class of his own in my eyes, and Burns has become an elite defender. Burns is somewhat of an outlier. A freakish talent who actually played forward for a bit, but really blossomed as an elite offensive defender when he was 26. His three best offensive seasons (60, 75 and 76 points) have come in the last three years when he was 29, 30 and 31. That’s rare, considering he only scored 40+ points three times in his previous nine seasons.
Twelve other defenders produced 30+ even strength points and we had 41 other produce 21+ points. A total of 55 defenders have more than 21 EV points. Morgan Reilly, Cam Fowler, Mark Giordano and Keith Yandle had 22 EV points. PK Subban, Andrej Sekera and Andrei Markov had 23. Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk, Ryan Ellis and Drew Doughty had 24. If Nurse can produce 21-24 EV points he’d be quite valuable, considering he is now starting to play and succeed against the opposition’s top lines.
Nurse was injured last season and only played 44 games, but he produced 11 points, which prorates to 21. If he only maintains that for the next five years the Oilers would be happy, but as he makes better decisions with the puck, could he score 22-24 EV points? I don’t think that is a massive reach.
FORWARDS OFFENSIVE PRODUCTION

Now let’s look at Marner. He is an incredibly gifted offensive player. Very smart. Shifty. Reads and reacts to the play very well. He had an excellent rookie season scoring 19-42-61 in 77 games. If he remains a consistent 60-point player he’d be very valuable.
But how much more can he produce? What is his upside? Is there that much more room for him to grow compared to Nurse as Veillette suggested? For argument sake, let’s say 70+ points would be a solid improvement and upside.
Since the start of the 2005/2006 season 122 players have scored 70+ points in a season. Digging deeper, 49 of them did it once, and 28 achieved it twice.
So that leaves 45 players who scored 70+ points at least three times between 2006-2017. It is pretty rare to be a consistent 70+ point-player.
Active players on the list include:
Three times:
Jamie Benn hit 79 when he was 24 and followed that up the next two seasons with 87 and 89 points.
Joe Pavelski first reached 70 points when he was 29 years old with a career-high 79 points.
John Tavares first did it at age 21 with 81 points and surpassed that once with 86 at age 24.
Loui Eriksson hit 71 points at 24 years old, had 73 the next year and 71 at age 26.
Marian Gaborik tallied 83 when he was 25 and had a career-best 86 when he was 27 years old.
Paul Stastny had 78 points when he was 21, and did it twice more before the age of 24. His most since was 60 points at age 28.
Phil Kessel had a career-high 82 points when he was 24 years old and surpassed 70 at age 26 and 29.
Vladimir Tarasenko had 73 points at age 23, then 74 at age 24 and last year he had 75 at age 25. Will he get 76 this year?
Four times:
Claude Giroux scored 70 for the first time when he was 23. Had career high 93 points when he was 24.
Corey Perry’s first time came at 23 years old with 72 points and his career best was 98 when he was 25.
Erik Karlsson hit 78 points at 21 years of age and had 71 last year when he was 26.
Steven Stamkos had 95 points at 19, 91 at 20 and 97 at 21. Injuries and the lockout are why he is only at four 70+ point seasons thus far.
Tyler Seguin had a career-best 84 points at age 22 and has produced 77, 73 and 72 points in the three seasons since.
Five times:
Henrik Zetterberg reached 85 when he was 25 years old surpassed 70 four more times up to the age of 30.
Jason Spezza scored 90 points when he was 22 and had 73+ points four more times by the age of 28.
Six times:
Anze Kopitar. He had 77 points when he was 20. Only topped that once with 81 when he was 22.
Nicklas Backstrom had 88 points at 21 years old, 101 points at 22 and had 86 last year when he was 29.
Patrick Kane has 72 points at 19 and hit a career-high 106 when he was 27.
Patrick Marleau had 86 and a career-best when he was 26. He reached 70+ five times between the age of 27-34.
Ryan Getzlaf scored 82 points at age 22, had a career-best 91 at 23 and has done it four more times, including last year with 73 at age 31.
Seven times:
Daniel Sedin did it first at age 25 with 71 points and peaked with 104 when he was 30.
Eric Staal set a career-high with 100 points when he was 21 and ranged between 70-82 in each of the next six seasons.
Eight times:
Evgeni Malkin had 85 as a rookie at 20 years young, and he has had three 100-point seasons.
Henrik Sedin scored 75 points when he was 25 and had 73 at age 34 with five 80+ seasons in between.
Nine times:
Alex Ovechkin had 106 points as a rookie at age 20, three more 100 point seasons and a total of seven 80+ point campaigns.
Sidney Crosby had 102 at age 18. He had four more 100+ point seasons and has had eight 84+ years. Injuries are the only reason he didn’t reach 70 in his other three years.
Twelve times:
Joe Thornton first did it at age 21 with 71 points. He topped 100 three times and had 82 points when he was 36 years young.
Fourteen times:
Jaromir Jagr first did it at age 20 with 94 points and the last when he was 35. But he left to KHL for three years then returned to the NHL. He had 66 points when he was 43. The elite of the elite.
MARNER COMPARABLES
Comparables are difficult, because no two situations are the same and we’ve seen some players hit their offensive peak early while others like Pavelski don’t hit it until they are 29.
But Veillette suggested Marner has a lot of upside due to his rookie season. It is fair to think that based on 61 points, but how much room to grow does he truly have? Seventy points would be great. If he ever hit 80 that would be outstanding, so I looked at players who reached 60 points before the age of 21 since 2006.
These guys were 80+ points between 18-21: Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin, Stamkos, Kane, Tavares, Backstrom and Connor McDavid last year. I don’t have Marner projecting to be like any of these players.
Eric Staal had 100 when he was 21, but only came within 24 points of that once again in his career. I have him more as a solid 70+ point player.
But the next phase of players has some interesting names to use as a comparable. I looked first at wingers.
Jeff Skinner had 31 goals and 63 points as an 18-year-old rookie. He had 33 goals and 54 points when he was 21 and tallied 37-26-63 last year when he was 24. He has yet to surpass his rookie season, but he is a solid scorer.
Jordan Eberle had 34 goals and 76 points in his second season when he was 21. He had 65 and 63 points when he was 23 and 24 years of age and he’s averaged 26 goals/season in his career. He’s been a fairly consistent scorer in his career, but his early 76 points was more of an outlier. He’s closer to a 60-point scorer, which is very good in today’s NHL.
Johnny Gaudreau had 24-40-64 as a 21-year-old rookie. He had 78 points the next year and 61 last season and is off to a very good start this year with 19 points in 15 games. He’s a good bet to match or surpass his second season.
Another name of interest is Matt Duchene. A highly skilled smaller player who is very smart.
He had 67 points at 19 years old, his second season in the NHL, then slumped to 28 the next year, but he produced 70 points when he was 22 (he did have 43 points in 47 games during the lockout when he was 21, which prorates to 75 points). But we’ve never seen him take a big leap offensively since his 19 year-old season. He has lived up to his second season, and surpassed it by a few points, but not a dramatic jump, which illustrates how difficult it is to go to the next level.
There are some other recent young players who burst on the scene right away, but have yet to take a big step after their first few seasons.
Nathan MacKinnon tallied 24-39-63 as an 18-year-old rookie. He has had seasons of 38, 52 and 53 points since. He is off to a good start with 14 points in 14 games this year.
Filip Forsberg played in the AHL at 19 and then scored 26-37-63 as a 20-year-old rookie in the NHL. He scored 33 and 31 goals the previous two years and 64 and 58 points. But he’s yet to take a jump offensively after an excellent rookie campaign.
I like all six of these players. They are very talented and have had solid careers with differing amounts of success, but Skinner, Duchene, Eberle, MacKinnon and Forsberg have yet to have a big jump from their early success. Gaudreau’s 78 points is the most of them and this season, albeit it early, he looks like he could match it or surpass it. I’d argue he is the best offensive player of them all.
Marner had a great rookie season, and while he is off to a tough start (eight points in 16 games), I suspect his offence will return. But I’m not sold he is a lock to emerge as a consistent 70-point player. It is extremely difficult to produce 70 points year after year.
If he remains a consistent 60-point player, that would be outstanding. I think he is capable of doing that, but when Veillette suggests the gap in upside is canyon-like, I believe he is making an emotional judgement based on one season. As a fan of offence, I’d love to see Marner score 70 or 80 points. I’m all for more goals in the game, but wanting it and doing it are two completely different things.
WOULD YOU MAKE THAT TRADE?
If I’m the Oilers I wouldn’t, but if I’m the Leafs I would. They have the luxury of having William Nylander as another high-scoring right-winger. They also have Auston Mathews, Nazim Kadri and other gifted scorers. The Leafs need to improve their defence and while trading a scoring winger can be dangerous, I believe they have enough depth to do it.
The Oilers need a scoring winger. No arguing that, but Nurse is only 22. I see him getting better and he improving. He also is the toughest D-man they have. I think the intangible of toughness is a nice bonus when you combine it on top of his skating and other skills. Many different styles of players are needed on a winning team and his edge on top of his skill is a nice bonus. Plus, if they trade Nurse, they are one injury away from not having much depth.
Also with the Oilers salary structure, I see Nurse signing either a bridge deal or a long-term deal in the $4 million/season range. If Marner has another 55-65 point season then he is getting a big raise within 20 months.
I’m sure Leafs fans and Oilers fans will disagree among their own fanbase if this is a good deal or not. Some would do it and some won’t. We all see players differently which makes debates interesting, but I strongly disagree with the notion that, starting today, Marner has much more upside than Nurse.
I think both are good players, but offer vastly different skills. As much as I love offence, you need good D-men to be competitive and I think Nurse has improved his game a lot from his rookie season.
Would you make the trade? Why or why not?
***Again, this is not a trade rumour. Just looking at what a potential deal might look like.***
Id pull the trigger on this deal in a second.
Marner for Klefbom I would say no.
But Darryl is a guy we could replace, with.. like Russell?
GOODNESS you gonna get TRASHED, son.
I hope you’re being sarcastic.
Maybe Klefbom last year, but definitely not this year.
I made it thirty trashes!!!!!!
* bows for applause *
Marner is a vastly better portential player than nurse. No way the Leafs make that move.
Says who? We already have a smaller forward with huge offensive upside as a youngster that now is a 2 way center that is top 20 in face off % under 25. I’ll take a large , mean, mobile elite skating 22 yr old defence man thanks. I bet Babcock would be salivating over getting Darryl
Vastly as a 22 year old….gord c’mon man.
Marner is only 20 went fourth in a great draft while nurse went seventh in a So so one. Ohl mvp.
Not taking away from what marner can be but Nurse has a good chance of IMO of being a legit first pair 3 at worst, high end #1. I still believe that personally.
He also is playing on the fourth line and has a team worst +/ -, while Darryl is flying up the depth chart. Pass on little Mitch, not for Nurse. Maybe they would take Russell and Shlep HA.
Robbie Schremp was unreal in the OHL as well…..
You were bang on Gord. Wish we had of got him now lol
If Sekera comes back try Nurse at wing, he has solid offensive instincts has decent hands, and he can skate.
It worked for Byfuglien in Chicago.
It would be a tough pill to swallow, but I could see the logic in it. If you think Klefbom-Larsson and Sekera-Russell can be your top-4 for 3 more years then Nurse could theoretically be expendable. Marner would also be an outstanding fit with McDavid and opens up Draisaitl to play 2C.
I am really, really bullish on Nurse, but this is one of those moves that could be a win for both teams.
The gift that keeps on giving. Oilers trade #16 + #33 = 0 in the so-called strongest draft in over a decade.
Just for fun – I find myself dreaming about a team that has Hall and Eberle and Barzal and Tkachuk and say Ryan Murray (instead of Yakupov)…
Maroon-McDavid-Barzal
Hall-Draisaitl-Eberle
Lucic-RNH-Kassian
Tkachuk-Letestu-Slepyshev
Tkachuk as a 4th liner…now there’s a good Tkachuckle.
Nhl 18. Make it happen!
that forward group leaves 16 million for Defense and Goalies
LD plays centre last season and Oilers have another 2-3 million in cap.
Nurse for Eberle LOL
Knowing Chia probably we get Tyler Bozak for Nurse.
The only deal he clearly won was the Maroon one.
What about Talbot and Kassian?
The Leafs wouldn’t do it. Marner is the Ontario kid with the junior pedigree. Very popular, much like Eberle (the Saskatchewan kid with the junior pedigree) was revered here in his early days. The fan base in southern Ontario would be cranky.
I’d rather aim for Brown or Hyman, as the ask will be a lot lower, and they both PK, provide secondary offense and are versatile two-way players.
Omg – no way you make that deal. Make sure Nurse is getting all the latest and greatest development training. He’s on the uptick and might just develop into the full meal deal, in first rotation.
First off – start getting some scoring off the wings, by separating McD and Drai. Nuge is not the right driver for Lucic, is not strong enough to support significant scoring from his wingers and is weak in his own end. On the other hand, Nuge might be able to generate offence flanking for McD. Geez – McL – most every one that has any brains in the hockey world, would at least admit that it’s worth a look. You’ve blended and re-blended and blended some more – on every other combination. Why not one that probably makes some sense?
Try a new GM first. He got us into this mess by signing the slowest player in the league Looch who refuses to hit or play most games. Then signing Russell for 4×4 was just plain awful. Nevermind his work or lack of it that got us a team with literally no depth. I cringe to think what he’ll do next.
Not to mention passing on Tkachuk in favour of that guy who isn’t even excelling in the minors.
Trading Nurse or Klefbom should be the final nail in the Chiarelli coffin.
When……Chiarelli does trade one of these defensemen for a skilled winger it makes the Hall trade even more egregious. Chiarelli has a history of poor asset management dating back to Boston.
What’s wrong with our current wingers? Don’t you guys remember when this group of wingers was a Stanley cup contender? Or when everyone was predicting Ryan Strome and Jussi Jokinen were magically going to have career seasons just because they put the Oiler’s uniform on?
It was a bad summer for the Oilers GM and now he has to be scrambling trying to figure out how to plug the massive hole on the right hand side of our forward group. Unfortunately I don’t think our defense is strong enough to be trading away anyone at this point. Maybe you could consider something once Sekera is ready.
“Don’t you guys remember when this group of wingers was a Stanley cup contender?”
Uh…no.
Well lots of experts were predicting this club to be a contender with the tire fire they entered the season with on the right side. I just find it amusing how brutally obvious this teams gaping hole was yet everyone just ignored it because we have McDavid.
Not Nurse!
Leafs left side is locked with Rielly and Gardiner, their two best Ds, while on the right they are actually worse with Hainsey and Zaitsev. They will not give a scorer like Marner for another LD, who will be destined to play in the third pair, and Nurse can’t play RD. Kypreos just talking whatever comes off his head.
Does anyone else think it’s weird that a writer who loves a to talk about how points aren’t everything is arguing that a player doesn’t really have much room for improvement because he’s already scored a lot of points?
Not a chance I make this trade if I am Edm. Nurse is jhst hitting his stride and is going to be a relatively cheap top 4 dman for at least the next few seasons.
Edmonton needs a complimentary top 6 RW who can bag 20-30 goals. Theres no way that should cost a young emergering dman like Nurse.
Uhhh…. Hall for Larsson?
You keep bringing this up, do you not think there is more to the Hall/Larson trade than the stats on the ice? Last I looked the Oilers did not do very well when Hall was here and there were subtle clues showing the Oilers were not overly thrilled with him. Examples, did not stick the C on him, water bottle throwing incident, calling out Gryba on the bench and subsequently being benched by McLellan. I do think Hall is an excellent hockey player, maybe just maybe he was not the right fit for the team…And Larson is no slouch.
Not a chance I would trade Nurse for Marner, Nurse is going to be a top 2 Dman on this team before he hits 25.
Even if there was more going on than the stats on the ice the Oilers still lost the trade. And I say that as someone that likes Adam Larsson a lot. You can’t move the goalposts and pretend like this kind of trade doesn’t happen.
You and others with like opinions need to take a real hard look at Halls stats. He is the definition of overated.
Not sure how you can possibly say the Oilers lost the trade unless making the playoffs does not matter to you. IF there WAS more going on then how can you possibly say the Oilers “still lost the trade?” What if it was a disagreement of leadership abilities, do you want a person on your team that thinks he deserves the “C”, especially when you have McD in the wings. Again, I think Hall is a very good player, I think the Oilers would have kept him if he was the perfect fit.
If this were a fantasy league, the Oilers lost the trade. But it’s not, and we didn’t. The organizational need for a RHD vs a LW was much greater. From the Oilers perspective, i think they came out ahead.
With hockey trades, i’m of the opinion that it IS possible for both sides to win.
As of today the trade was 100% beneficial for the Oilers as they went from a basement dweller to a contender in one season, with this trade being one of the main catalysts. Sorry the evidence just isn’t there to say this was a bad trade, yet. If however, and I hope not, that the Oilers miss the playoffs this year and next and last year proved to be a fluke, then we can revisit and start to consider this trade a flop. Until then, they shored up the defence big time at the cost of defensively weak 50-60pt winger.
Whats your point? Just where do you think Edm would be without a top pair RHD? Ill take Larsson over Taylor toe-drag-overated-crybaby-turnover-Fallsy-onlyhad1goodseason Hall
Kypreos , now it makes sense. Any rumours from hockeybuzz, I’m sure there are some good rumours out there.
I was watching Hockey Central today and Kypreos was talking about the Nurse/Marner and he was surprised on how much negative flak he got on social media. He mentioned it was just a comment worth throwing out for discussion. I believe he and McLean said they would not trade Nurse for Marner.
Anything Kypreos says needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Surprised/disappointed others would elevate his off the cusp comment like this.
Agree, Krypeos was not expecting the response, he basically said it was just for a discussion…A lot of touchy fans out there with Edm and Tor leading the pack.
This is beyond ridiculous. Why not trade Connor McDavid for Patrick Marleau and be done with it?
Everyone hear a faint orgasmic moan from the east? Don’t ever do that again “D” with great power comes great responsibility. And the thought of McMatthews to the average Toronto fan base is the equivalent thought of a no holds barred threesome with Kate Upton and her twin sister. the office productivity through out the GTA just dropped 2% thanks to your blatant miss use of said power.
agreed. very irresponsible
Fair enough gents. I’ve been in an ornery mood for the last few games and silliness from Kypreos doesn’t help. But your point is valid.
Trade strome for Marner. Heck Chirelli traded Eberle for strome so he must be worth it… right…?
Nice article about bringing light to skilled rookies in today’s NHL. They are coming in so prepared that they are just hitting their offensive upside in their first few years. Which is a huge accomplishment for them, but doesn’t mean they will continue projecting to shatter Gretzky’s records. Which is why when Eberle potted 76pts as a soft skilled winger, I thought it was obvious that he punched above his weight class and suggested he be traded for defencemen back in the darkest days, at which point I was nearly ran out of town for suggesting it.
Anyway Marner fits the same bill as Eberle for me, sure the Oilers need a scoring winger, but I’d argue they still need a top 2 dman more. Nurse isn’t a top 2 d-man(yet-hopefully), but he is one of the Oilers better d-men, so trading him for a soft winger doesn’t make sense to me and creates a bigger hole than it fills.
Wouldn’t do this trade. Nurse is just coming into his own, and we BADLY need D on this team.
And I’m sure most Leafs fans would say we need to add Drai along with Nurse for the value to be close 🙂
Why don’t we trade Strome for a scoring RW’er instead? Oh yah, he doesn’t have that kind of value.
Did anyone else hear that Nurse gave Draisaitl the black eye/concussion? Just a question and not saying where I heard this from.
No way I would make this trade. we Yamamoto coming up with similar upside to Marner. and we need to save money on the wings. Also Nurse has plenty of untapped upside.
Until a couple of games ago , Marner was playing on the 4th., line.His defensive game would drive McLellan crazy.