Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Darnell Nurse comes in at No. 38 on our updated 2025 list. He was unranked on Brownlee’s original list.

It’s been 13 years since Nurse was drafted seventh overall by the Oilers. If you remember back to that draft, everything got moved around once the Florida Panthers took Aleksander Barkov 2nd overall, instead of the assumed Seth Jones. Edmonton was expected to take either Elias Lindholm or Sean Monahan, but both went ahead of them at seven. Instead, they landed with Nurse.

Notable

Nurse has become a core member in Edmonton and is likely to become a player who plays 1000th games with the organization.

Is that based on play? Partially. There’s no denying that Nurse has had his moments in Copper and Blue. However, it’s mostly because he signed an eight-year deal worth $9.25 million, and the Oilers can’t move on from him.

As a result, the Nurse has become an unpopular figure in the city. Some fans believe his contract is holding back the team’s potential to take the next step. Nurse is an okay player, but isn’t someone who can ever live up to that price. Unfortunately, you can’t go to a game now without hearing about how much he makes.

The Story

Now over 700 games into his career, Nurse is a constant in the........

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