THE Edmonton Oilers are off to a better start in 2024-25 than a year ago.

The team’s record in October of this year (5-5-1) was much better than the disaster of 2023-24 (2-5-1), which ultimately led to Jay Woodcroft losing his coaching job- leader and Jack Campbell lose one’s grip on NHL entry-level goalkeeper position.

This gives general manager Stan Bowman and his coaching staff (led by Kris Knoblauch, now in his first full NHL season) opportunities to audition players and unlock slow starts from trusted veterans .

Fans have no such patience and many are calling for all kinds of drastic measures.

Here’s a look at some of the ideas circulating online, why Bowman is unlikely to make these moves, and things fans should really be concerned about.

Commercial nurse?

I interact with Oilers fans daily on the radio and Athletics. No topic is more of a lightning rod problem than Nurse Darnell.

A large portion of fans want him to be traded, even if that is impossible.

Bowman is unable to negotiate with Nurse due to the no-movement clause in his current contract. NMC is easing up ahead of the 2026-27 season, but management cannot move Nurse between now and then without his consent.

Why would Nurse accept a trade? He has a chance to win the Stanley Cup in Edmonton with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and other players who were his teammates with the Oilers.

Some have even suggested a buyout, but PuckPedia’s math paints a picture dark picture.

The sentiment toward Nurse is wrong for two reasons.

Finding Nurse a solid partner over the years has been difficult, but he has been productive for years (most recently with Cody Ceci). Looking at his partners year after year at five-on-five, we see several third-pair talents and inexperienced players.

All numbers five to five, via Natural Stat Trick

On the list right now, Nurse with Evan Bouchard is a workable duo that has generated a 52 percent goal share and a 61 percent expected goal share at five-on-five over the past three seasons, via Natural Stats Tip.

Nurse is a productive NHL defenseman, and the Oilers need him to be at his best to win the Stanley Cup.

Edmonton’s new management just traded away the best partner they’ve had in years and failed to choose their partner this year.

The nurse does not choose her partners. Management and coaching make these decisions and must find solutions.

The other reason anger toward the nurse is wrong? Two Oilers managers (Peter Chiarelli and Ken Holland) signed Nurse to deals, blowing up the RFA seasons leading up to his current contract.

Nurse bet on himself, played the market correctly and cashed in on a lucrative contract. Edmonton is a strong entrepreneurial city. The nurse believed in her own abilities, that’s basically the mantra of the town.

Thousands of self-made men and women should celebrate Nurse. Why isn’t this happening? The cap hit is a major obstacle to roster construction.

Bowman has a right to be frustrated with Nurse’s contract, but the fault doesn’t lie with the player.

Fans who don’t recognize previous management’s culpability in the current Nurses contract might be slow to recognize the next dangerous contract situation. Don’t worry, I’ll have it for you in a minute.

Get a goalie?

Stuart Skinner was criticized for his performance early in the season, with some fans believing the organization missed an opportunity to move on at the position over the summer.

There are better goaltenders than Skinner scattered around the NHL. These alternatives are extremely expensive.

Edmonton has deployed Skinner in goal in 35 playoff games over the past two seasons. It’s a significant investment for a young player (he turned 26 last week) who should have several more productive seasons ahead of him.

Skinner’s cap hit ($2.6 million this season and next season) and impressive five-on-five save percentage in his full seasons as a starter make him an ideal roster candidate from Edmonton.

Consider the five-on-five save percentage leaders over the last two full seasons, as well as the ceiling reach for each individual goalie.

All numbers five to five, via Natural Stat Trick

Skinner’s success and performance over the past two seasons puts him in the top half of the NHL, making him a bargain. The Oilers can’t trade for most of these names because the cap hit is too high to consider based on current investment levels across the roster.

This applies to this year, next year and beyond.

Draisaitl’s contract, coupled with what Oilers fans hope will be long-term deals for McDavid and Bouchard, makes an inexpensive starter in net one of the key pieces for the Oilers.

Skinner played well. He gains experience. The anger among Oilers fans is due to a small sample size. The best path forward for Edmonton in goal is Skinner. If he struggles badly, Bowman could look for a veteran replacement like Marc-Andre Fleury. Even that is complicated, since Fleury has a no-movement clause in his contract with the Minnesota Wild.

Avoiding Another Offer Sheet

No one is suggesting it, but then again, no one was talking about offer sheets for Philippe Broberg Or Dylan Holloway a year ago.

Bouchard is an option for a summer 2025 offer sheet.

A rival team with plenty of room to maneuver (Puck Pedia has the Flames with $35 million in cap space for 2025-26) could offer an outrageous deal to Bouchard.

Even if the Oilers were able to tie it, it would hammer the ceiling and leave the organization in dire straits. This may be far from being the case, but after the headlines in the newspapers of St. Louis Blues offers at the end of the summer, another devastating offer would be impossible to defend.

What can Bowman do? One of the problems it faces is the large number of aging players entering into long-term deals with substantial trade protection.

It’s a big problem.

Here are the veterans Bowman will have to deal with, along with the cap numbers and dates when no-movement clauses will be relaxed.

Draisaitl is listed first, as his new contract ($14 million AAV) is higher than McDavid’s current contract ($12.5 million AAV). Draisaitl is in the final year of his current contract, with McDavid having this season and next on the old deal.

Bowman has little room to move. A veteran like Evander Kanewho is currently injured, will have to be a trade consideration for management no matter how well he plays for the remainder of this season and the playoffs.

Zach Hyman can be traded in the summer of 2026, Nurse in the summer of 2027 and these things can happen depending on the cap increase in those seasons.

The Netherlands has signed so many long-term deals with so many veterans that the next few years are going to be painful. Surely the plan was to win the Stanley Cup and then worry about the rest. The “rest” comes home. The Draisaitl deal was a must-have signing, and the signing of McDavid and Bouchard is also vital.

Bowman may not be able to sign Bouchard until offering season arrives. If that’s the case, he could be faced with an impossible situation next summer: trading Bouchard or matching a poison pill offer.

Building mid-value contracts

Holland created valuable contracts through heartbreaking qualifying offers and drafting young players like Broberg, Holloway, Ryan McLeod and Ethan Bear.

Everyone saw how it happened.

Bowman has some good players making less than $3 million this season.

Some of these names should give the team a solid foundation for valuable contracts in 2025-26. Leading candidates include Skinner, Brett Koulak, Mattias Janmark And Vasily Podkolzin.

Ty Emberson should get a contract, but there is some danger there. He will become a Group 6 free agent next year if he has played fewer than 80 career NHL games. This means he will have to play 40 more games before the end of this season.

Fans may remember that the Oilers lost Tyler Pitlick to free agency in a similar fashion in the summer of 2017.

Conclusion

Fans who want Nurse to be traded or an upgrade from Skinner are reacting to short-term issues and things that won’t change. Expect both men to flourish and play important roles on the team over the next few seasons.

While there is cause for concern, there are major issues keeping fans up at night.

We just passed Halloween, but few things are scarier than a possible takeover offer from Bouchard.

Keeping Emberson healthy for another 40 games requires lit candles and clean living.

If you’re an Oilers fan looking for something to worry about, there are plenty of more plausible and scary options beyond Nurse’s lock-in contract and Skinner’s early struggles in a small sample size.

(Photo by Darnell Nurse and Stuart Skinner: Walter Tychnowicz / USA Today)