How sleepless nights are bringing Edmonton Oilers players together ahead of cup-or-bust season

By Srihari Anand

Modified Sep 12, 2023 00:28 GMT

Edmonton Oilers are coming off a disappointing end to the 2022-23 NHL season. They lost to the Vegas Golden Knights, who eventually went on to win the Stanley Cup, in the Western Conference semi-finals.

Several Edmonton Oilers stars have added family members over the last year namely Darnell Nurse, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Cody Ceci, Evander Kane, Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak, and Mattias Ekholm.

Per NHL.com's Michael Arcuri, a common topic of discussion for dads on the Edmonton Oilers seems to be sleepless nights. Darnell Nurse talks about how the babies keep you up all night and that is how every player bonds with the other, saying:

"You haven't slept all night and the guy next to you probably hasn't slept all night either, so it's pretty fun. It's brought a great dynamic to our room.”

Nurse welcomed his second child, a boy Chase, just five days ago. The defenceman thinks his teammates have found new ways of bonding over parenthood. Nurse jokingly says,

“Everyone's old now. No, it's great. I think it's fun too, because a lot of people are either going through their first one, or second, or third, but you kind of just pass stories off each other. Everyone knows what you know."

Ryan-Nugent Hopkins is the least experienced dad on the Edmonton Oilers roster. He and his wife Bre welcome their first child, daughter Lennon, in late August. Nugent-Hopinks also associates himself with getting less sleep but says he's enjoying the early days of being a father.

“I have a baby, so that's a pretty big change. Less sleep, never changed a diaper before, but it's been a good change. Right now, she's not moving too much, so a lot of naps, a lot of cuddles. Other than that, I can't feed her, so that's mom's job. But yeah, it's going well.”

The Edmonton Oilers will be looking forward to put the parenthood camaraderie to good use in the upcoming 2023-24 NHL season. Everyone has their eyes on the Stanley Cup next year making it a cup-or-bust season for Connor McDavid and his players.

Edmonton Oilers parted ways with Director of Amateur Scouting

Oilers appointed a new Director of Amateur Scouting Rick Pracey who will be taking over from Tyler Wright. This is part of the Oilers' front office overhaul which has also seen a new CEO of Hockey Operations in Connor McDavid's former agent, Jeff Jackson taking reigns of the ship.

Rick Pracey is not new to the world of scouting. Before his new job at the Edmonton Oilers, he was the Director of Amateur Scouting from 2008-14 with the Colorado Avalanche and was responsible for bringing in generational talents like Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, Ryan O'Reilly, and Tyson Barrie.