The Edmonton Oilers and Darnell Nurse have begun contract negotiations to sign the defenceman to a new contract, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Freidman reported Friday.

The news came in Freidman’s final 31 thoughts column of the season:

A small nugget, but one the Oilers are looking to get taken care of. Nurse will enter the season in the final year of a two-year bridge contract that paid him an AAV of $5.6-million. The defenceman, who is 26 now, is likely due for a fairly significant raise off his bridge deal.

The Oilers will likely be looking to sign Nurse long-term and it wouldn’t surprise me to see Nurse want the same.

In Feb. 2020, Nurse’s camp used Jacob Trouba’s seven-year, $8-million contract as a comparable, while the Oilers used Josh Morrissey’s eight-year deal that paid him $6.25-million. Other deals since have seen Alex Pietrangelo get a seven-year, $8.8-million deal with the Golden Knights. Torey Krug signed a seven-year, $6.5-million deal with the Blues. Jonas Brodin signed a seven-year, $6-million AAV deal with the Wild.

As our own Cam Lewis noted last month, the Oilers and Nurse could theoretically land somewhere in the middle of all of that.

What would you pay Nurse on his next contract?