Darnell Nurse is closing in on a trade to the San Jose Sharks, and Wednesday the shape of the deal started coming into focus.
Word is Shakir Mukhamadullin comes back to Edmonton as part of the return. No retention from the Oilers either.
That last part matters. Nurse carries a $9,250,000 cap hit, and Edmonton is reportedly eating none of it.
For a team that just finished a 41-30-11 season with a plus-13 goal differential, moving off that number clean is a real swing on the books.
Nurse posted 24 points in 82 games this year, seven goals and 17 assists, and he'd gone plus-5 over his last 10 outings after a rough minus-12 season overall.
He's logged big minutes on Edmonton's blue line for over a decade. Trading him isn't a small thing. It's the kind of move that changes a locker room's pecking order overnight.
Mukhamadullin, meanwhile, gives the Oilers a 24-year-old defenseman who put up 12 points in 50 games with San Jose this season, five goals, seven assists, and a game-winner on his ledger.
Why Edmonton eating zero salary changes the math
That's the part front offices will be picking apart for weeks. A no-retention trade for a $9.25 million rearguard tells you Edmonton wanted this off the books, not just off the roster.
Is that addition by subtraction, or is Edmonton quietly downgrading its blue line to solve a cap problem? Depends who you ask.
San Jose finished 39-35-8 with a minus-41 goal differential, twenty-second overall. Adding a physical, experienced defenseman like Nurse gives Ryan Warsofsky's group a veteran presence it clearly needed.
Edmonton went 3-1 against San Jose this season, so there's some recent familiarity between these two rosters heading into whatever comes next.
Nurse also has playoff experience fresh in the tank, having suited up in six postseason games this year. That kind of mileage doesn't just disappear because the sweater changes.
Friedman was clear that this isn't finalized. "We await the final picture," he wrote, and that qualifier is doing a lot of work here.
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Until both general managers put pen to paper, this is a strong signal, not a signed trade. But the pieces on the table right now point toward Nurse packing his bags for California.
Is trading Darnell Nurse for Shakir Mukhamadullin a win for the Oilers?
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