There have been few players in Edmonton who have been as up and down throughout their career as Darnell Nurse has been. What’s remained constant is him playing big minutes for the team, often taking the toughest competition night in and night out.

While the tide has turned in that sense over the last three seasons, seeing his time against elite competition falling from 41.7 percent of his ice time in 2021-22 to 30.2 percent last year, according to PuckIQ, his scrutineers haven’t let up. It makes sense, given that his $9.25-million per-year contract is among the highest in the entire NHL.

Nurse’s 2023-24 season saw much of that continue, playing the second-most ice-time among Oilers defencemen. As has been in seasons past, his results have been a mixed bag, this season seeing the team control the shot attempt share, scoring chance share, and expected goal share, while breaking even in terms of the actual goal share.

His results in the regular season were just fine, driving play offensively at a five percent rate above league average, defence at a league average rate and his penalty kill work being just one percent below league average, according to HockeyViz. It slotted him in as an average second-pairing defenceman, which in the grand scheme of things is fine, even if his contract is a few million more than the team would hope.

The problem was that in the playoffs, virtually everything fell apart at the seams for Nurse, who was undoubtedly one of, if not the weakest link as the team went on their deepest run yet.

However, a huge change is coming this season for him, as his most common defensive partner Cody Ceci was sent to the San Jose Sharks for Ty Emberson. Whether it’s been in the regular season or the playoffs, Nurse has consistently performed better away from Ceci than with him, and the team started to see that last year. In the Vancouver series, the Oilers got Vincent Desharnais playing with Nurse, and Philip Broberg later filled that role in the Dallas and Florida seasons.

Both of those players have also left the team this summer, so assuming the team doesn’t split up the tremendous pairing of Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard, Nurse will be playing with someone he never has before. This is going to be a big boon for Nurse, who I’m expecting to have a big season for the team this year.

He’ll spend his year playing with Troy Stecher, who he has some familiarity with from the end of last season, or Ty Emberson, both players being guys who I think will compliment Nurse well. Here’s hoping his lingering injury will allow him to still get some pre-season games in.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.