There was a time and place where Darnell Nurse was a top defenceman for the Edmonton Oilers. Granted, it is well in the past now, and it still doesn’t mean Nurse should have been paid $9.25M per season. We have the two most recent Oilers GMs to thank for that, when you think about it. Stan Bowman, while in Chicago, signed Seth Jones for an exorbitant sum that Nurse was able to measure his contract to, and Ken Holland was forced to pay for waiting too long to extend Nurse.
While the cap is going up a lot faster now than it was in 2021, the contract is still inefficient. Nurse is now, at best, a second-pair defenceman, and is consistently guilty of poor positioning leading to missed coverages, or a significant amount of own goals. And it has been revealed that the Oilers talked a Nurse trade this past season. Allegedly, they tried to take advantage of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ GM being Brad Treliving before he got axed.
This observer sees more fault in the Oilers’ depth than its top-nine forwards and top-four defenceman. However, if Edmonton is to move on from Nurse, what would a trade realistically look like?
Let’s pick three teams who could vie for Nurse, and see what the offers could be.
Given the kind of contract Nurse has, trading him won’t be easy
Parameters have to be set first, given the as-mentioned clunkiness of Nurse’s contract. That’s likely what has prevented any trades to this point: trading an anchor contract is no easy feat. As such, its salary receives heavy consideration here.
Note also that, for 2026–27, Nurse still holds a full no-movement clause, meaning he dictates his prospective trade destination. It at least turns into a modified no-trade clause after next season, making trades easier then. But for now, his determining a destination means Edmonton has less leverage. As much as it would be nice to fleece another team in this hypothetical exercise, it would require miracles.
Toronto Maple Leafs: The already attempted path
The trade: TOR receives Darnell Nurse (25% retained), EDM receives Morgan Rielly and a third-round pick
There’s merit to this proposal, as David Pagnotta has reported that this plus Nicolas Roy nearly happened inseason. Further, Darren Dreger is reporting that the Leafs will ask Rielly to waive his own trade protection. Where there’s smoke, especially when multiple insiders are on similar wavelengths, there’s usually fire.
This trade has multiple reasons for functionality. The Leafs would get a small bit of cap relief, as Nurse at 25% retained would come in at just under $7M. Reilly, by comparison, makes $7.5M per season. The cost to the Leafs for getting that retention, ultimately, would be in conceding a draft pick.
For the Oilers, this makes sense. Yes, you’re eating $562,000 more salary, but if you can get paid to retain on Nurse’s deal, do it. That draft pick can help you get a depth pickup at the next trade deadline, among other uses it has. A lot worse could be done, if we’re being honest.
San Jose Sharks: The newly rumoured trade partner
The trade: SJ receives Darnell Nurse, EDM receives Ty Dellandrea and a sixth-round pick
The Sharks, along with the other team following on this list, have an impending issue. They will need to reach the cap floor in an environment where the cap is skyrocketing. Further, four different Sharks defencemen are unrestricted free agents this summer, and a fifth (Shakir Mukhamadullin) is a restricted FA. Put simply, San Jose’s going to need defencemen this summer.
To expect the Sharks to trade their second-overall pick, or someone like Michael Misa, for Nurse however is pure fallacy. GM Mike Grier has done the Oilers a solid before, but he also isn’t going to jack-knife the Sharks rebuild. More than likely, the Oilers end up with someone like Ty Dellandrea: a mid-twenties reclamation project who might thrive with a new coach, in a new environment. Him, and a draft pick, both can either be kept or flipped.
It’s not a sexy trade, but that’s the ultimate reality with trying to move on from Darnell Nurse. None of the options that exist down the trade route are glitzy. You’re not about to get Jason Robertson or Devon Toews by trading Nurse. Dellandrea might even be a win, all things considered.
Calgary Flames: Let’s cause pure chaos
The trade: CGY receives Darnell Nurse and a second-round pick, EDM receives Olli Määttä and a seventh-round pick
If you look at this option, and your first response is “why would the Flames even consider Nurse,” consider 2019.
That offseason, Edmonton and Calgary got together for a trade of underperforming players. The Flames had buyer’s remorse one year after signing “The Real Deal” James Neal. Meanwhile, the Oilers got the last good season of Milan Lucic in 2016–17, before his stats plummeted. The two teams swapped players, and by the “Goalie Fight” Battle of Alberta, even the most ardent Lucic backers in Calgary had tapped out.
Olli Määttä isn’t a bad contract, necessarily, being owed $3.5M for two more seasons. But the Flames also will need to get to the cap floor next season, and they lack legitimate top-pair defence options. Nurse can help in both regards, as well as mentoring the young guys (i.e. Zayne Parekh) in Cowtown. Meanwhile, the Oilers get Määttä, who won Stanley Cups as a Pittsburgh Penguin, to be more stable defensive depth.
Like Nurse, Määttä has trade protection—a 10-team no-trade list still in effect for 2026–27. That protection disappears after next season though. So, if the Oilers and Flames can’t trade Nurse and Määttä this summer, there’s always 2027.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
