Oilers Defenceman Being Considered for Team Canada Sparks Controversy

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Liam McCormick
October 29, 2024 (6:00 PM)

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Team Canada is slated to announce their new roster in the first week of December, and new reports suggest Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse is a candidate to make it.

On a recent episode of Oilers Nation Everyday, NHL insider Anthony DiMarco revealed that Team Canada is considering Nurse for the roster, specifically for a penalty killing and defence-first role.

»Darnell Nurse is in the conversation to play on the third pair and in a penalty-killing role Another name is Travis Sanheim from the Philadelphia Flyers. Both Nurse and Sanheim are competing for that third-pairing, shutdown, penalty-kill role.

Subjectively speaking, your top four is Toews, Makar, Theodore, and Pietrangelo, and after that, it's anyone's ball game.»
- Anthony DiMarco

For Oilers fans who actually watch Darnell Nurse every night, this news may come as an actual shock. Nurse has struggled for years to live up to his $9.25M salary and his billing as the Oilers top defenceman. Far too often, Nurse is giving the puck away and caught out of position leading to goals against.

DiMarco mentioned that Canada would be interested in Nurse to play a physical, penalty killer defenceman type role on the roster. Nurse has been playing more physical this year, which is a welcome sight to Oilers fans, but still it's probably not enough to justify a roster spot on one of the best rosters in hockey history. NHL fans and Oilers fans alike took to social media to express total shock over the fact that Nurse is even in consideration.

The Edmonton Oilers will already be quite well represented on team Canada with Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard as locks to make the team, with Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Stuart Skinner possibilities too.