With some cheaper names like Rasmus Ristolainen and Morgan Rielly out there, intriguing RFAs Alexander Nikishin or Braden Schneider, and the star-chasing potential of Zach Werenski all linked to trade rumours, the Edmonton Oilers blueliner seems to be on the back burner.

Anaheim is now interested, according to Dave Pagnotta and Elliotte Friedman, but by and large, he seems to be the circle-back option.

But does the Oilers’ urgency for a trade to clear the cap space for free agents or trades match the market? My guess is no.

For the Oilers to get what they want from the trade, presumably no retention and a player in return, they might have to test Nurse’s patience until he relaxes his trade list. That clock could presumably tick into July. You won’t get the notification on your phone because you’ve got no service at the lake. If you’re lucky, it’s not raining.

It’s a tricky trade.

Getting the best deal might only arrive when other teams have swung on blueliners and missed. He doesn’t – so far – seem like a top option. And with a three-team trade list, what would be the hurry for Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or Boston?

But the Oilers need to know their cap situation by next week, or make other deals at their own risk, which could leave them with less flexibility in the Nurse trade.

There have been reports that Nurse is also motivated to get a trade done sooner rather than later. I’m just not convinced that he’s willing to expand his trade list yet. If it’s true he has the leverage this year with the no-move, then why surrender it so soon?

These are just my hunches.

The real dollars in the Nurse contract are less than the cap hit, which could help owners and general managers who aren’t on his list justify the deal. It’s $29.6 million, mainly in bonuses, paid out in three intervals per year. That’s more easily stomached than the $37 million against the cap for the four years.

For Bowman not to retain, that implies waiting for the best deal, and he needs a winner here. But can he if that drags longer than a few days? How does Nurse feel about Orange County?

It’s easier said than done, but Bowman has to be patient.

No, Nurse shouldn’t come back

One other aside on Nurse. Seeds have been planted in the past week for a total about-face and the possibility that sees Nurse on the roster for game one of the season.

Some D.J. Smith comments, some Oilers Now conjecture. All is forgotten, Darnell! Come on back.

No.

No, no, no.

If Nurse’s cap hit matched the production, we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place. I know this is a dreaded phrase that can lead to mistakes, but it’s time to move on. It’s better for both the team and the player.

There’s no walking this situation back. Both sides appear to be motivated. It just might not happen as quickly as anyone would like.

Re-signing Ingram

Would you be comfortable with re-signing Connor Ingram for two years at $3 million per, which is roughly the range Ingram might get on the open market?

This is after the report that Ingram is “bullish” about getting a deal done.

I asked this question and got the following response: “I would rather put my head in a wood chipper than watch the same two goalies come back and play for Edmonton. This team will not get close to the Stanley Cup final again without an elite keeper, that’s just a fact.”

Prayers to @sheriff40 (and the wood chipper).

But the issue of returning both goalies isn’t about Ingram – it’s about Tristan Jarry. He makes any goaltending depth chart heading into next season nerve-wracking.

Whether that’s Ingram, or Sebastian Cossa, who unsurprisingly returned a first-rounder, or whether it’s AHL star Michael DiPietro, or fill in the blank. Jarry in the depth chart makes the goaltending position a question mark until the season begins. There won’t be any “comfortable feelings” until we see him play again (and maybe not any afterwards).

The often-used phrase “irons in the fire” is now being used to describe Bowman and a goalie search. It behooves the Oilers to check in on every team and their goaltending, of course.

How he moves Jarry as part of a package for a Hellebuyck, Swayman, Saros, Sorokin, etc, is anyone’s guess, and mine is that it won’t happen.

If you asked me last July and August, I would’ve said the 2026 off-season was the time we’d get answers on the goaltending position for the next era of McDavid. Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard were coming off the books. Go time.

I feel much less confident now after the Jarry trade. Jarry was the big swing.

I’d love to create mock trades, but Bowman doesn’t seem the type of guy who would own this mistake, nor does he have the first-round picks to trade his way out of a bad contract à la the Andrew Mangiapane negative trade asset. This is pure speculation, but I don’t think he wants to trade Jarry.

In light of that, I like Ingram. I think he has more to give than what he showed last year, and can play at a .907 save percentage if not better.

The scary part is, you need two goalies to win in the playoffs. The Oilers are set up to try a combination similar to Skinner and Pickard to win the Stanley Cup. It’ll be Jarry and ____.

Cue the “motivated off-season” and “healthy for the first time in a long time” soundbites. I fear this is the best we get here.

So amongst the various options, I like Ingram.

A tough watch

The NHL Draft is a tough watch these days. With the Oilers absent from day one, the spectacle, or lack thereof, wasn’t going to be compelling TV anyway, like it was when Steve Tambellini approached the podium.

All the lame ideas that would’ve been left on the NHL Awards show’s writing room floor have been borrowed for the draft. Now, the trades aspect is ruined by technology – that isn’t the NHL’s fault. We know the deals before Gary Bettman announces them.

But the majesty of hockey’s graduation night is missing the camera shots of the GMs’ faces, the will-they-won’t-they of trades, the draft day pictures. I never thought I’d be nostalgic for hearing about Columbus’ draft party at Outback Steakhouse, or finding out which GM would forego congratulating the hosts and just recite the pick, yet here we are.

When forced to watch sketches and time-fillers to expand the ever-lengthing first-round, I just hope Bettman’s happy that he gave into teams for their decentralized draft. Again, the fans lose.

Oilers draft

The Oilers draft this year seems built for the long game, which is no surprise given they didn’t pick in the top 50.

Director of Amateur Scouting Rick Pracey likes the hard-working, defensively conscious players earlier, trusting offence will come. Later, he is taking chances on offensive upside, hoping they’ve found “efficiency” with the pick.

As percentages go, the odds are low that more than one player from this class will play in the NHL, and the experts seem to average Edmonton with a so-so grade.

As many say, let’s talk in five years and see what happens.

Speaking of, eight of the first 34 picks from the 2021 draft (Mason McTavish, William Eklund, Sebastian Cossa, Fedor Svechkov, Fabian Lysell, Mackie Samoskevich, Zachary L’Heureux, and Olen Zellweger) were all traded in the past two weeks.

Oskar Olausson, Chase Stillman, Isak Rosen, Brennan Othmann, Nolan Allen, Zach Bolduc, and Logan Mailloux all were first-rounders from that draft traded in the past calendar year. The most bountiful potential trade target in Matthew Knies was a late second-rounder, with the alleged trade with Montreal at the deadline being a haul.

While a talented first round – only four of the first-rounders have not played an NHL game – they’ve become big trade chips five years on.

The 2021 Draft disaster

The Ken Holland and Tyler Wright era of Oilers drafts is showing signs of serious damage. Giving a grade of the Oilers’ work in 2021 is forever marred by trading out of the Jesper Wallstedt pick.

However, the Oilers wouldn’t be beaten to the punch, being the first league-wide to trade a prospect from that first round. Xavier Bourgault and fellow 2021 pick Jake Chiasson to Ottawa for now Europe-bound Roby Jarventie and a fourth-rounder back (David Lewandowski).

Edmonton had six draft picks that year who have played a total of three NHL games.

Their second rounder was gone in the Andreas Athanasiou trade, later dealt by Detroit in the Nick Leddy deal, and eventually used by the New York Islanders on Aatu Räty, who’d be far and away the best player for Edmonton in this draft.

German defenceman Luca Münzenberger was seen as a reach to take in the third round. The experts proved correct. Münzenberger played out his time in Vermont, went back to Germany, and played in the DEL-2 league in 2025-26. Chiasson seems a better fit in the ECHL at this point, now under Montreal’s control.

Two picks in the sixth: Matvey Petrov and Shane LaChance.

Petrov produced consecutive 90-point plus seasons in the OHL before graduating to Bakersfield. The Russian is struggling offensively in the AHL, but remains in the organization for now, the lone player from that draft still in Oiler ranks. LaChance and seventh-rounder Maximus Wanner were used in the Trent Frederic and Max Jones trades.

Five years on, this draft is trending to be one of the worst in recent memory, with only Trent Frederic to salvage it.

Pracey has had one prospect from the last three years of drafts play an NHL game in fifth-rounder Connor Clattenburg, and two if you count Isaac Howard (traded for Sam O’Reilly, Pracey’s only top-50 pick).

It’s hard to have success without top-50 picks. The Oilers’ win-now mode has cycled through and forced Bowman to be creative with European overagers and NCAA free agents, which to their credit, has provided early returns.

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and co-host of PreGaming and Oilersnation After Dark. He’s also been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years of news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, Menzies collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4.