Oilersnation Everyday on Tuesday<\/a> and really dove into the ongoing saga of Darnell Nurse and why a trade hasn\u2019t been made yet. And more specifically, what pieces could be on the move from the Flyers.<\/p>\n\u201cI think there is a deal with Philly with [salary] retention of around $2.6 to $3 million, something along those lines \u2014 Pittsburgh wanted more. I don\u2019t know the full parameters of that deal. I\u2019ve heard Nick Seeler,\u201d Pagnotta said.<\/p>\n
Pagnotta further reports that the Oilers do not want to retain at all \u2014 or at least minimize the retention \u2014 and are therefore pushing Nurse to be more willing to accept a trade to the Anaheim Ducks or the San Jose Sharks, who have more money to play with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a little surprised this hasn\u2019t already happened, to be honest,\u201d Pagnotta said. \u201cThere are some elements there that tie this to the Oilers wanting this to happen, Nurse wanting this to happen, but he also wants it on his terms, as per his right, given his contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor now, it\u2019s Philly or bust unless he changes his mind for the Ducks or the Sharks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pagnotta then went into how that might open up further. In a hypothetical scenario where the Pittsburgh Penguins fail to get help on their blue line via free agency, they could come back to the Oilers and are willing to play ball more in regards to how much of Nurse\u2019s salary that want Edmonton to retain. <\/p>\n
So, yeah. While there have been whispers \u2014 or fans hypothesizing \u2014 that Nick Seeler would be the player sent the other way to Edmonton, this is more concrete. The 33-year-old blueliner has two years left on his contract that carries a $2.7-million AAV. By moving Seeler for Nurse, the Flyers are essentially massively upgrading that left side of their defense and spending around $4 million more per year to do it.<\/p>\n
That is, if that is the full deal. As Pagnotta mentioned, the full parameters of the trade is unknown but we can guess there is some collection of draft picks or minor prospects going one way or the other, if there\u2019s anything more than just Nick Seeler for Darnell Nurse with a solid amount of his salary retained.<\/p>\n
Why hasn\u2019t this Nurse-to-Flyers trade already happened?<\/p>\n
If there is actual interest from all parties to make this deal work \u2014 since it does seem like it\u2019s \u201cPhilly or bust\u201d for Nurse and the Flyers have put forth some sort of trade package, why hasn\u2019t this happened already?<\/p>\n
Well, there\u2019s a couple things.<\/p>\n
As it has been reported around the NHL, the availability or reigning Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski in a trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets is kind of putting a big pause to any other defenseman moving. More specifically, the big boys like John Carlson and Darnell Nurse are now seen as backup plans if a team can\u2019t land Werenski.<\/p>\n
The Flyers are extremely aggressive in their pursuit of Werenski, as acquiring one of the best defensemen in the world could change everything for the team and give them that No. 1 blueliner that they haven\u2019t had in forever. And of course they won\u2019t just give a big ol\u2019 thumbs up to that trade to acquire Nurse, because it could affect their ability to keep Werenski past the last two years of his contract. <\/p>\n
They could theoretically make this Seeler-for-Nurse swap and then if they include Cam York (for example) in that trade with the Blue Jackets for Werenski, then the roster spots would stay the same and the upgrade to that blue line would be immeasurable. But, with Nurse being under contract for four more seasons, that can get a little bit messy if they want to keep Werenski around. It shouldn\u2019t be a lot but if they have a not-so-good Nurse in two years taking up $6.5 million of their cap space, then that might not be so favorable.<\/p>\n
Of course, this is in a fantasyland where the Flyers are going to be at the top of Werenski\u2019s trade list and they could put forward an enticing enough package for Columbus to accept a trade within the division. So, maybe the reason why we\u2019re hearing more details is because the Flyers have been told that their trade offer isn\u2019t good enough and now they\u2019re moving on.<\/p>\n
The other thing that could be holding this trade back is Seeler\u2019s full no-trade clause. For the first two years of Seeler\u2019s contract, he had a full no-trade clause so he got full control of any potential trade. That goes away on Wednesday when the next NHL season technically begins.<\/p>\n
Now, could the Flyers just go through the process of asking Seeler if he is willing to waive to go play with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl? Yeah. Could he reject it and use his power given to him? Possibly. He seems like he really enjoys playing in Philadelphia and might not want to move if he had a choice. But also in reality, asking him two days before he no longer had a no-trade clause, he should understand the writing is on the wall and this deal could happen no matter what \u2014 all they have to do is wait.<\/p>\n
Well all that hypothetical situation does not matter anymore as the Flyers don\u2019t need Seeler\u2019s permission to trade him this week.<\/p>\n
We could very well see this all come to fruition as soon as Wednesday when the gates of free agency opens, and now we know more of what to expect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Flyers want to upgrade their blue line and are looking down several avenues at several defenseman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-736090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}