Oilers extend qualifying offers to Nurse, Strome, and Slepyshev

According to the Edmonton Oilers’ Twitter account, the team has extended qualifying offers to Darnell Nurse, Ryan Strome, and Anton Slepyshev. This is an expected move by the Oilers as it allows them to retain the players’ rights as they continue to negotiate new contracts. 

All three of Nurse, Strome, and Slepyshev are restricted free agents for the Oilers and guys whose rights they want to protect, though there is an obvious difference among them being that Anton Slepyshev is on his way back to the KHL. On the other hand, Nurse and Strome will be on the team next year, but they also need contracts and extending them qualifying offers keeps them under team control until a deal gets worked out. For Slepyshev, the QO keeps his rights just in case he ever wants to start a North American comeback tour, or if they want to use him as an add-in on a trade.

While we don’t know how the negotiations are going with Nurse and Strome just yet, you’d have to imagine that these are two guys that Peter Chiarelli would like to get done sooner than later. Darryl is obviously a huge part of the defence and Ryan Strome seems to have settled in nicely as the third line centre. It’s going to be very interesting to see how the organization handles these contracts with Darnell Nurse, in particular, most in line for a hefty pay raise. Do they bridge? Do they go long-term? What about Strome? His QO is $3 million which seems like a big ticket for a 30-35 point guy. Does Chiarelli try to go a bit longer with him at a lower AAV?

With the Oilers going up against the cap sooner than later, I can’t wait to see how they fit all of these pieces together. What do you guys think?

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