If there’s one thing that Edmonton Oilers fans know all too well, it’s that you can’t crown the winners and losers of free agency after Day 1.

Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson, and Andrew Mangiapane all signed deals in Alberta’s Capital on Canada Day in each of the last two summers, and we all know how well those contracts worked out. (Very poorly, for those new to the Oilers).

But it’s hard not to look at this year’s rendition of free agency frenzy and see the Oilers as a clear winner.

At risk of getting too far ahead of oneself, this crop of talent signed and acquired by the Oilers is much different from years past. For one, Darnell Nurse gave the Oilers a gift in opening up his trade list and accepting a deal to head to San Jose. Stan Bowman and the Oilers’ front office had a clear desire not to retain a penny from his $9.25 million cap hit, and they were successful in doing so, all the while picking up a Darnell Nurse light in Shakir Mukhamadullin and getting a prospect in Zack Sharp the team had eyes on for a while. That’s a massive, massive win, no matter how tough it is to see Nurse, who finishes his tenure in Edmonton with the second-most games played among defencemen in........

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