{"id":360120,"date":"2026-06-14T06:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T06:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/360120\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T06:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T06:08:15","slug":"nhl-trade-rumors-san-jose-sharks-named-as-landing-spot-for-high-paid-defenseman-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/360120\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Trade Rumors: San Jose Sharks Named as Landing Spot for High-Paid Defenseman"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest questions in the NHL this offseason is what the San Jose Sharks<\/a> will do with the second overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. However, with the club looking to make real improvements to the roster this summer, San Jose<\/a> is also getting caught up in some trade speculation.<\/p>\n

The Athletic<\/a>\u2018s Shayna Goldman highlighted the Sharks as a potential landing spot for Edmonton Oilers<\/a> defenseman Darnell Nurse<\/a> following his trade request this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sharks could help Nurse replenish his value as they did with Ceci, and then flip him at the deadline to a contender looking for cheap help on defense. The difference here would be that Nurse wouldn\u2019t be a rental like Ceci was for Dallas<\/a>. But it\u2019s pretty much the only way to really get his salary down with the new retention rules. While there\u2019s no traditional third-party brokering, the Sharks, at least, have experience being a middleman if need be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Athletic\u2019s Shayna Goldman on a potential Darnell Nurse trade for the San Jose Sharks<\/p>\n

Related: Expert Predicts New Sharks\u2019 Pick in 2026 NHL Mock Draft<\/a><\/p>\n

Darnell Nurse contract (PuckPedia<\/a>): $9.25 million cap hit (2026-27), $9.25M cap hit annually through 2029-30 season<\/p>\n

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The Sharks, per PuckPedia<\/a>, have the most projected cap space in the NHL this offseason at over $41 million. In that regard, it certainly makes them a viable option to take on the $9.25 million AAV on Nurse\u2019s contract. Furthermore, as Goldman highlighted, general manager Mike Grier has a history of taking on bad contracts and then flipping the player later when they rebuild some value.<\/p>\n

Nurse, age 31, would provide San Jose with another left-handed defenseman in the short-term. If he plays well, returning to the form where he averaged 36.1 points per season from 2019-25, it could be a nice buy-low opportunity for the Sharks<\/a> front office.<\/p>\n

Another option, as highlighted by Goldman, would be to view Nurse as a multi-year addition. While his contract won\u2019t age well as he approaches his mid-30s, he would at least improve the team\u2019s depth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other option is just adding Nurse and keeping him for the season (or beyond), and figuring out the next steps when the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related:\u00a0Growing Buzz on Who Sharks Will Draft at No. 2<\/a><\/p>\n

Darnell Nurse stats<\/a> (2025-26): 7 goals, 17 assists, 20:58 average time on pace per game, 166 blocks, 137 hits, 19 takeaways in 82 games<\/p>\n

What seems far likelier to happen is San Jose pursuing one of the better NHL trade candidates this offseason who better aligns with the club\u2019s long-term vision or is simply a better player.<\/p>\n

The Sharks have also been linked to Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> defenseman Morgan Rielly<\/a> ($7.5 million cap hit) and New Jersey Devils<\/a> defenseman Simon Nemec<\/a> ($918K cap hit), defensemen who will cost more to acquire but also provide the team with more talent and upside along with greater cap flexibility to keep building the roster.<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0Scouts, Execs Predict Who Sharks Will Draft with No. 2 Pick<\/a><\/p>\n

Given the draft assets and cap space Grier has to work with, it\u2019s reasonable to think the club adds a high-end defenseman this summer. With the 2026 NHL Draft just a few weeks away, we should soon get more clarity on just how aggressive the Sharks will be in upgrading the blue line this offseason.<\/p>\n

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Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the biggest questions in the NHL this offseason is what the San Jose Sharks will do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[13508,90987,2070,81842,17522,404,9898,88,90,89,98,2193,146541,95903,13190,2992],"class_list":["post-360120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-dallas","tag-darnell-nurse","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-morgan-rielly","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-draft","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sharks","tag-shayna-goldman","tag-simon-nemec","tag-the-sharks","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}