The Oilers locked up four defensemen: Ryan Shea, Shakir Mukhamadullin, Spencer Stastney and Ty Emberson.
Combined, those four deals come in at $8.58 million against the cap. That's less than Darnell Nurse makes by himself.
Nurse carries a $9,250,000 cap hit for San Jose now, the tenth-highest in the entire NHL according to league cap data.
His production last season? Seven goals, 17 assists, 24 points across 82 games, with a minus-12 rating.
Shea, meanwhile, quietly put up 35 points in 80 games and finished a plus-30 rating. That's a bottom-pairing defenseman outproducing a top-paid rearguard on a fraction of the cost.
Is that a coincidence? Maybe. But fans are noticing, and the math is not exactly subtle.
The math Oilers fans can't unsee
Mukhamadullin, Stastney and Emberson round out the group, all depth pieces who'll compete for bottom-pairing minutes and penalty kill time next season.
None of the three cracked double-digit points last year. Stastney had 10, Mukhamadullin had 12, Emberson had 12.
Nurse posted comparable offensive numbers on nearly seven times the cap hit. That's the kind of arithmetic that gets a fanbase talking.
New head coach Mike Babcock takes over an Edmonton blue line that just got four times deeper and, on paper, more affordable.
Stan Bowman has been the general manager since July 2024, and this stretch of RFA business is about roster flexibility as much as loyalty.
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The Oilers finished 41-30-11 with 93 points last season, a plus-13 goal differential, and Edmonton enters the next stretch with its cap sheet suddenly a lot more crowded at the bottom.
Nurse may bounce back in San Jose. But every dollar the Oilers commit elsewhere on the back end just makes his number look heavier.
Four contracts. One number. And a fanbase doing the math out loud.
Should the Oilers be shopping Darnell Nurse this summer?
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