One by one, San Jose Sharks players streamed into the visiting team’s dressing room at Enterprise Center in St. Louis, happy but perhaps a bit fatigued after a tough overtime win.
Defenseman Darnell Nurse’s mood was unmistakable, though.
As he high-fived staff and other players, Nurse wore a big smile, understandably, just a couple of minutes after scoring at the 1:03 mark of the extra session to lift the Sharks to a 3-2 win over the Blues on Thursday.
“Just want to say, thanks, guys,” Nurse said in the room after his teammates selected him as player of the game. “The last couple months, (there’s) been a lot of change. You guys have welcomed me and my family in, and it’s incredible. So, thanks.”
Safe to say, waiving the no-movement clause in his contract this summer to come to San Jose after 11 seasons with the Edmonton Oilers seems to be working out for Nurse, and for the Sharks.
Going into Saturday’s game against the Oilers at SAP Center, Nurse is third among all Sharks skaters with an average of 20:58 in ice time, and with Tuesday’s win, San Jose (3-1-0) is off to its best start in five years.
Nurse and Michael Kesselring, paired since training camp began, have been the Sharks’ best defensive duo so far this season.
With more ice time in 5-on-5 play than any other pair, Nurse and Kesselring have allowed only one even-strength goal in four games, compared with a combined seven goals allowed by the three other defensive pairs the Sharks have trotted out this month.
On his overtime goal, Nurse came off the bench for an exhausted Jacob Trouba, zipped into the Blues’ zone, took a pretty cross-ice pass from Ivar Stenberg and fired a shot past Blues goalie Joel Hofer for his first goal in a Sharks uniform.
“I was trying to yell off the bench, but (Stenberg) has eyes,” Nurse said. “He sees the whole game. I was able to make a nice move there and pull up and just got the puck on the middle of my stick and just shot to the middle of the net there.”
Happy to have you in Teal, Doc. 🩵 pic.twitter.com/CMQ5BsIoGi
— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) October 9, 2026
Mobbed by teammates after the goal, Thursday’s scene was a far cry from Nurse’s final days with the Oilers.
After consecutive years of reaching the Stanley Cup Final, the Oilers were ousted in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks in six games in April.
Although goaltending has seemingly been an issue for the Oilers in recent playoff runs, Nurse still felt he absorbed a disproportionate amount of blame for the team’s failure to win a Stanley Cup, even with all-world forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in their respective primes.
Much of that blame stemmed from Nurse being, for years, one of the NHL’s highest-paid defensemen without a commensurate return, with his eight-year contract carrying a $9.25 million average annual value.
In Edmonton, the Oilers were reportedly frustrated enough to discuss scratching Nurse for Game 7 of the 2024 Cup Final against the Florida Panthers. The Oilers ultimately didn’t scratch Nurse for the game, which the Panthers won 2-1 at home, but he averaged only 15:51 of ice time in the series, about six minutes less than during the regular season.
Fast forward two years, and Nurse’s time in Edmonton was running out. He initially agreed to be traded to Philadelphia, Boston, or Pittsburgh, but those teams wanted the Oilers to retain some of his salary, something general manager Stan Bowman wasn’t eager to do.
When Nurse, whose contract includes a full no-movement clause, agreed to be dealt to the Sharks, who were OK with no salary retention, the trade was completed.
“No one expects more of myself and the way I play than myself,” Nurse said after the July 1 trade. “If I’m being quite honest, Joe from down the street could be mad because he can’t drink his beer and watch the second round of playoffs, but I live with each and every game — each and every moment — throughout the summer, and try to learn from it, grow from it.
“There were things, when you have a high cap hit, that were definitely warranted, and my play warranted. And if you look, you could probably see a lot of things that weren’t warranted. But for whatever reason, I was the problem. That’s sports, though. That’s how it works. In big markets, you’re never going to sell newspapers, you’re never going to get attention, without going negative.
“Someone has to bear the brunt of that. When you’re making a lot of money, and you aren’t performing, and there were a lot of moments where I felt I needed to perform better (you become a target). And once you become a target, that target isn’t moving off you. For me, it’s a fresh start.”
Nurse, 31, was one of the most popular players inside the Oilers’ dressing room, but the change of scenery has been welcomed.
“I knew it was time,” Nurse said recently.
Trouba was in a similar position, as he left the New York Rangers in a tumultuous departure in Dec. 2024, when the team traded him to the Ducks. Trouba said Rangers general manager Chris Drury threatened to place him on waivers, where any team could claim him, if he didn’t waive his 15-team no-trade clause. That’s when Trouba agreed to be dealt to the Ducks.
“Players go through ups and downs throughout their career,” Trouba said last month when asked about Nurse. “He gave his heart and soul to Edmonton and wanted to win there and put everything he had into doing that, and then you get removed from that situation. You’ve got to kind of figure out where you’re going, what you’re doing, and what you want to do.
“I think sometimes a fresh start is good. I think for me, I thought that it was good for me to just kind of get out and play hockey again, enjoy coming to the rink with a smile on my face, and hopefully we can kind of feed off each other and have a lot of fun together this year.”
Seems like they’re on their way.