I could’ve done a political chirp today, but it’s too depressing and too repetitive. The Iran war continues. Trump is being Trump. Ukraine and Russia still at war. On and on and on. So bear with me.

The Oilers are trying to trade Darnell Nurse. He has just completed his fourth year of an eight year contract valued at $9.5 million a year. He is not playing at the level of a $9.5 million player. The Oilers did this to themselves. They signed Nurdr to two short-term bridge contracts so they have no choice at that time to sign Nurse to a long-term expensive contract to keep what was then a valued defenceman on the team.

His value has since gone down. He is best buddies with Connor, McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. He wants to stay an oiler. He is upset, naturally, about rumours of him being traded, of him being shopped around. He also has one more year of a no trade clause. He has to give approval to the Oilers for a trade.

The Oilers management are telling him you’re going to get traded this year or the following year after your no trade clause is gone. So, to put it bluntly, the Oiler management and Darnell Nurse are not on good terms, right now.

The Oilers stumbled to a first round exit this year. Stan Bowman made a questionable trade, trading Stuart Skinner, who is at the last year of his contract, to the Pittsburgh Penguins, for Tristan Jarry who has two years left of his contract valued at over 5 million per year. Bowman saddled the Oilers to a $5 million goaltender who is not at the top of his game for two years. If he had kept Skinner, there would been $5 million of play money to find a good goalie. Connor McDavid gave the Oilers a break by signing a two-year contract at the same amount that he had been paid for the last eight years. So Bowman threw it away by trading for Jarry

Something tells me that this is going to be a painful summer for Oilers fans. Leading to a painful season.

That’s all I have for today.