An intriguing new team has reportedly entered stepped up with a bid for Edmonton Oilers d-man Darnell Nurse, who is on the trading block.
That team is the San Jose Sharks, a squad as loaded with young talent as almost any other NHL squad.
“There is one additional team that I’ve heard that has made a play for Darnell Nurse.
And that is the San Jose Sharks,” said NHL insider Frank Seravalli to Bob Stauffer of Oilers Now.
But there’s a rub, as Seravalli made clear. “That team is on Darnell Nurse’s ‘no’ list. And to this point in time, that has not changed.”
Seravalli said Nurse trade talks are otherwise at a standstill, with the three Eastern teams all on Nurse’s ‘yes’ list, Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, having other fish to fry for now at least.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has reported that all those teams would want Edmonton to take back a contracted player in return.
Seravalli said Boston is focused on bringing in a right shot d-man, not a left-shot like Nurse. Philadelphia is looking to sign free agent John Carlson or trade for top NHL d-man Zack Werenski. Pittsburgh has other lines in the water as well. “When you have all these things going on, what that means is the Oilers are at a bit of a standstill with those three teams.”
Seravalli added: “I’m not saying that those teams ultimately won’t circle back. And maybe they will. And maybe (Nurse) is armed with that intel that it’s not dead yet.”
Seravalli said it wouldn’t be “problematic” for Nurse to return to Edmonton, where he’s liked in the dressing room. But he wondered if Nurse hadn’t already moved on in his own head. It’s also the case that Nurse’s No Movement Clause ends this summer, with the Oilers having far more options to move the player to a team of Edmonton’s choice next summer.
“When that happens, the Oilers have leverage to be able to send them wherever they want without his blessing. So if I’m Nurse, I realize that this band-aid is about to get ripped off at some point.”
San Jose might well make sense for Nurse, Seravalli said, as playing on such a team loaded with young talent might rejuvenate his career.
My take
1. San Jose is indeed a fascinating and talented young with forwards like Macklin Celebrini, Ivar Stenberg, Michael Misa, and Will Smith, all taken near the top of the NHL draft in the past four years, top d-men like Sam Dickinson and Keaton Verhoeff, hot shot goalie Yaroslav Askarov, and a number of other strong young players. If Nurse wants to something new, fresh and exciting, this team is as good a bet as any.
Stauffer has been mentioning San Jose as a good fit for Nurse for many weeks, but today is the first time that it’s been reported that team is in the hunt.
2. But Nurse may well prefer to move to the Eastern Conference. If so, it’s entirely possible one of the three teams on his list will still bite. There are few useful free agents to be had this year, and teams left out of the signing frenzy but desperate to make a move could well come to see Nurse as a significant prize.
3. The Oilers may well be reconsidering moving Nurse at all, given how difficult it might be to replace him. That said, if Edmonton frees up the $9.25 million cap hit that would have gone to Nurse this year, that gives them with the cap space to make a move at any time this season. There’s no necessity to use all that cap space this summer.
In fact, given how fierce the competition for players will be this summer it might well make sense to wait until early 2027 to make a move, dealing with a team that realizes it’s out of the playoff hunt and had better deal away players who no longer fit in long term.
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