THN Writer's Poll votes Darnell Nurse the most overpaid player

[Cas]

Vlasic isn't basically a bottom pairing D-man. He's a defensive D-man who was a healthy scratch on a team that allowed over 4 goals per game last season. Now he's one year older, one year slower, and one year more injured.

Vlasic would be a bottom pair defenseman on an AHL team. He's just god-awful, and to top it off he doesn't seem to care. His contract was one of the key ones that ended the Sharks time in contention.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

Whomever voted for Shesterkin is either someone with an axe to grind, a mental patient or both.

That is insulting to mental patients. Mental illness does not suggest stupidity.

Whichever person voted for Shesterkin should have their press credentials pulled.

I think they must have been thinking of 11 mil + on his next contract.

 

[Blitzkrug]

That Ryan Reaves vote is some nasty work for a $1.3M deal lol

Relatively speaking, Reaves is overpaid given he can't pass, shoot, skate or play hockey in general. He's below replacement level making above replacement level money. Certainly not a make or break type contract for Toronto, but by definition it is an overpayment.

Can certainly run his mouth at an elite level though.

The rest of votes are dumb tho. Seguins contract for example wouldn't look nearly as bad if his lower body didn't turn to dust just after signing it. Shesterkin shouldn't be anywhere near this list.

 

[BlackAdam]

Stop disrespecting Ryan Reaves.
He has the incredible stats of 8 mean stares from the bench per game

 

[Mrfenn92]

Whoever voted for Igor is a complete moron
At least wait for his extension

 

[Love]

Huberdeau is the worst contract

 

[Mr Positive]

I'm one of those Oiler fans who thinks Nurse can still live up to his cap hit if we get him a decent partner

Bobrovsky was in his situation once. Everyone was writing him off

 

[ORRFForever]

There has to be worse. Still, how they gave Nurse that kind of money is beyond me...

 

[nbwingsfan]

https://thehockeynews.com/news/nhl-writers-poll-most-overpaid-and-underpaid-players-buyers-remorse-and-more

I know Oiler fans defended him for a while after the contract 'Only over paid by x' but it seems like that is no longer the narrative even amongst them. His play seemingly gone off a cliff.

Ryan Reaves over Justin Holl?

Pffttt Toronto media at it again

I have a hard time taking anyone serious when they actually try and claim Nurse is the most overpaid player in the league. Like, sure, it’s turned into a not great deal. But Zadorov makes 5 million, Severson makes 6.25, Ristolainen makes 5.1, Faulk makes 6.5, etc. That puts him in the 7+ per range still. So are we really trying to argue that no player is overpaid by more than 2 million per, when Huberdeau makes 10.5, Dubois makes 8.5, and Vlasic makes 7? Heck, even guys like Anderson at 5.5 or Copp at 5.63 are probably more overpaid. This is reminiscent of when Lucic was on Edmonton and everyone claimed he was literally the worst player in the entire NHL, just because he was overpaid. People too often just look for reasons to try and justify their ridiculous hatred of Edmonton & Toronto

This is some homerism at its finest.

Nurse played like a #5/6D the whole post season and is one of the highest paid D in the league.

It’s between him and Huberdeau and it isn’t coose

 

[Mr Positive]

There has to be worse. Still, how they gave Nurse that kind of money is beyond me.

1. The dynamic of the team changed. The offseason when he signed he was the #1d and was on the 1st unit PP, and did a great job at it (and all his roles)

2. It was a covid year vs only other Canadian teams and that could have skewed things.

Based on his stats and growth at the time, the number made sense. Since then, he lost the 1 PP job to specialists, and then we added Ekholm, which pushed Nurse down and gave him worse linemates.

 

[Fatass]

https://thehockeynews.com/news/nhl-writers-poll-most-overpaid-and-underpaid-players-buyers-remorse-and-more

I know Oiler fans defended him for a while after the contract 'Only over paid by x' but it seems like that is no longer the narrative even amongst them. His play seemingly gone off a cliff.

Seth Jones is close though. If he played on a good team he’d be even with Nurse. But there’s no expectation to win in Chicago.

 

[nbwingsfan]

I’m simply pointing out that when you look at what other guys around the league are getting, Nurse is a 7+ million dollar defenseman. We’ve reached a point where there are bottom pairing dmen making 4-5 per, and pretty much any legit top 4 dman signing a new deal is getting 6+.

Vlasic is basically a bottom pairing dman at this point and makes 7 million. How do you figure Nurse is more overpaid?

Classic contract is up soon. Nurse still has sooo many years left

 

[ORRFForever]

1. The dynamic of the team changed. The offseason when he signed he was the #1d and was on the 1st unit PP, and did a great job at it (and all his roles)

2. It was a covid year vs only other Canadian teams and that could have skewed things.

Based on his stats and growth at the time, the number made sense. Since then, he lost the 1 PP job to specialists, and then we added Ekholm, which pushed Nurse down and gave him worse linemates.

Fair enough.

TBH, he's NOT horrible but :

1) He is mistake prone
2) He's not "great" at anything.

Again, it can't be the worst contract in the NHL - just the worst in Edmonton.

 

[Mr Positive]

Fair enough.

TBH, he's NOT horrible but :

1) He is mistake prone
2) He's not "great" at anything.

Oh well... Again, it can't be the worst contract in the NHL - just the worst on Edmonton.

I agree with that. Nurse is guilty of what you say, but he's great otherwise. Physical, fantastic skater, great puck skills. But, if you make bad decisions, it all goes to crap

 

[Fatass]

If Nurse was paid 3 mil AAV would anyone complain about how he was doing in his bottom pairing minutes?

 

[Blitzkrug]

If Nurse was paid 3 mil AAV would anyone complain about how he was doing in his bottom pairing minutes?

Uh, no?

That's kind of the entire point of this list. Kinda surprised you were able to post this because you clearly can't read.

 

[ORRFForever]

I agree with that. Nurse is guilty of what you say, but he's great otherwise. Physical, fantastic skater, great puck skills. But, if you make bad decisions, it all goes to crap

Is there a chance the mistakes go away?

In the International Hockey Section, posters are always saying the don't want Nurse anywhere near Team Canada because he will play a GREAT game but you can ALWAYS count on him doing something stupid at least once a game.

It's too bad. As a person of colour, he'd make a GREAT role model for other Canadians who might not consider playing hockey.

 

[Fatass]

Uh, no?

That's kind of the entire point of this list. Kinda surprised you were able to post this because you clearly can't read.

So you’re saying I can write though. Thanks for the compliment!

 

[Mr Positive]

Is there a chance the mistakes go away?

In the International Hockey Section, posters are always saying the don't want Nurse anywhere near Team Canada because he will play a GREAT game but you can ALWAYS count on him doing something stupid at least once a game.

It's too bad. As a person of colour, he'd make a GREAT role model for other Canadians who might not consider playing hockey.

Imo playing with sub par partners has made bad habits enter his game. Imo with a better partner he could turn it around. It kind of reminds of Dubnyk as an Oiler. He had some good tools but played behind some BAD defense and it made bad habits infect his game as he tried to compensate. On a much better defensive Wild team he just pulled it all together and was great. He got Vezina votes there.

 

[Ryuji Yamazaki]

Bouchard will join him soon

 

[Ulysses31]

by %s reeves makes sense if u think he has 0 value. while others on list may b worth roughly 50% he is worth 0% of his (if you think he has no value)

 

[Reality Czech]

What imbecile voted for Shesterkin?? He's making $5,666,667 to be the best goalie in the NHL.


Did this "hockey writer" just hear about his recent negotiations in passing and assumed he's making 13 million AAV now?

Someone who has a good sense of humor.

 

[Bank Shot]

https://thehockeynews.com/news/nhl-writers-poll-most-overpaid-and-underpaid-players-buyers-remorse-and-more

I know Oiler fans defended him for a while after the contract 'Only over paid by x' but it seems like that is no longer the narrative even amongst them. His play seemingly gone off a cliff.

He had an unfortunate playoffs where every puck was bouncing off him into the net. That was the first playoffs Nurse has had with that kind of bad goal differential. I guess it defines him for people that have never watched him play,

Pretty crazy that his contract is seen as worse than a guy like Seguin though.
Over the past 3 seasons Seguin has outscored Nurse 115 to 91 at ES and 30 to 12 on the PP.

So for $10 million you get a soft minutes second line forward that averages 8 more ES points and 7 more PP points than a guy who plays defence against the other team's top lines for 20+ minutes per game and adds something to the game besides points.

Over the last 3 seasons, Seguin ranks right behind Eberle, Toffoli and Rust in ES scoring. They make an average of about 5 million per season. Tarasenko has outscored Seguin by 20 points over the last 3 seasons and just signed for $4.75 x2,

So Seguin is about $5 million overpaid per season and has 3 seasons left.

Anyone signing Nurse this offseason would be paying more than 4 million, He would have gone for at least $6 million. Zadorov had a fluke playoff season but there is no way GMs wouldn't be giving Nurse more. I mean if you are going by results that is. If you are going by hyperbole and Oilers hate, Nurse is like worth $2.3 million. I prefer to go by results which anyway you measure them, Nurse is in the top 90 for NHL defencemen. Top 3 are getting $6-7 million. They are way more rare than second line 50-60 point forwards.

So in short, the writers are wrong. What else is new?

 

[MardyBum]

Who tf put Shesterkin on that?

 

[JoVel]

It's semantics. But "most overpaid" isn't quite the same as "worst contract".

For being "overpaid" you should just look at dollars vs NHL performance for this coming season. Based on that I'd say Cal Petersen, who gets 3.8 million to not be in the NHL at all. It's not so bad because it's the last year, unlike Nurse or Huberdeau. But he's more overpaid, in my opinion.

Huberdeau at 6.65 is maybe passable.
Nurse at 5.4 is maybe passable.

If we want to get into the semantics of it "most overpaid" also doesn't specify if we're talking percentage or purely the dollar amount that someone is overpaid. You can easily look at that question multiple ways.