The Edmonton Oilers have spent the summer dominating headlines for reasons that have nothing to do with Darnell Nurse. Mike Babcock’s potential return to coaching has swallowed up the conversation, but quietly, Nurse has asked out after 12 seasons. The Philadelphia Flyers need help on the blue line, especially on the power play. The question is whether Nurse is the guy to fix it, and at what price.
Nurse has four years left on his contract at $9.25 million per season. That’s a lot of money for a defenseman who put up just 24 points last year. But context matters. Evan Bouchard ran the Oilers power play, not Nurse. And playing behind Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl inflates everyone’s numbers. Nurse’s production dip might look worse on paper than it actually is.
The Flyers power play was brutal last season. They finished dead last in the league at 15.7 percent. In the playoffs, it somehow got worse: 8.3 percent across 10 games. That’s not a fluke. That’s a systematic failure. Adding a new quarterback on the back end has to be a priority.
According to PuckPedia, Philadelphia has over $32 million in cap space this summer. They still need to lock up Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras, but after that, there’s room. Nurse’s full contract fits under the ceiling. That actually helps the Flyers in negotiations — the Oilers can’t demand a premium package for a player whose cap hit is no longer a burden for the acquiring team to stomach.
The perfect offer from Philly? A 2026 second-round pick and a 2027 fourth-round pick. That’s it. Edmonton can’t ask for more given Nurse’s recent play. He’s not the same guy who signed that deal. The Oilers are in a spot where they take what they can get.
Nurse isn’t a natural power play specialist anyway. Any success he had in Edmonton came with McDavid and Draisaitl drawing all the attention. Once Bouchard took over, Nurse never got that job back. The Flyers are desperate enough that Nurse could still be an upgrade, but they shouldn’t pretend he’s a savior.
If they want to look elsewhere, John Carlson is the best option on the free agent market. He was traded from Washington to Anaheim at last year’s deadline and put up 278 career power play points. He won’t have prime Alex Ovechkin to feed, but feeding Zegras and Matvei Michkov isn’t a bad fallback plan.
One name you can cross off: Tony DeAngelo. He had two solid years with the Islanders, but his time in Philly ended badly. The Flyers aren’t going back down that road.
The Flyers already solved their backup goalie problem. The power play is next. If they decide Nurse is worth the cap hit, the trade cost is low enough to justify. If not, there are other options. Either way, the pressure is on to fix a unit that was historically bad.
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