Quote:
Originally Posted by GoJetsGo
The hype for Nurse by Flames fans is getting to be a bit much.
Yes, he looks good. Big, physical and smooth skating.
But he's a defensman, and has looked very average to poor in his own end on my viewings so far. That doesn't mean anything long term, but as a defender he has a long way to go with his game before he's labeled a sure fire "great player for them".
Very difficult to make projections like that with defenders because of how huge a part of the game playing defensively is. And we all know in that setting (Edmonton) it's going to be an even more difficult assignment.
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My thoughts exactly. Nurse to me has a phenomenal toolset - great size, grit, skating ability, passing, shooting and skates well with the puck.
What I notice he is horrible at sometimes is his decision making - especially under pressure. He seems a bit like a giveaway machine at the moment. Teams will be able to key-in on this and purposefully dump it on his side of the ice with a tonne of forechecking pressure.
However, with that being said, he is still very young and raw, and defencemen do take longer to develop. He will probably turn out to be a very important part of the Oilers' success (probably second only to McDavid) and a huge thorn in Calgary's side for years to come. Hopefully he will just 'Phaneuf-it' and be this flashy guy with an over-abundance of tools and be a first-pairing defencemen, yet make constant 3 third pairing mistakes. I do think he is one of the more interesting prospects from the Oilers' side of things to follow in the years to come.
But yes, he has some rather glaring issues, and I can't see him in the NHL to start the season this year. Call-up for sure - and then 'we'll see', but I think he is much too raw yet.