The biggest issue with Darnell Nurse continues to be how much money he makes, and an inability to play up to the level of a $9.25-million defenceman.

But if you’re able to set aside the dollar amount — which in the big picture you of course can’t do — Nurse is still a solid contributor for the Oilers. This year was no different, as he continued to munch minutes in the regular season with solid results. He was a net positive in terms of shot attempt share, scoring chance share, expected goal share and actual goal share. Individually he blocked and took a ton of shots, laid the body lots, and chipped in a good amount of offence.

His underlying numbers all took a dip in the playoffs, including his goal share, below the 50 percent mark. Those are undoubtedly concerning things as his he and his most common partner, Brett Kulak, really struggled in 155 five-on-five minutes, with a 43.3 percent shot attempt share and the scoring chance share, 43.7 percent expected goal share while getting outscored 7-3. The coaching staff’s unwillingness to move away from this pairing was an issue for the team, doubly so considering they played the second-most of any Oilers pairing this spring.

Nonetheless, Nurse drove offence at a two percent rate above league average, defence at a league average rate and penalty kill play at a three percent rate below league average, according to HockeyViz, which pegged his overall contributions at that of a second pairing defenceman.

Moving forward it will be interesting how the new coaching staff maneuver’s Nurse’s pairing and minutes, and the fact the Oilers reportedly approached Nurse about his no-trade clause this summer will be a story to follow in the future.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.