The Darnell Nurse trade has hit a wall, and the problem is baked right into the setup. Edmonton is trying to move a pricey defenseman with a very short list of approved destinations, and that has left GM Stan Bowman with almost no wiggle room.
Elliotte Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast that Nurse’s no-movement clause list currently includes Boston, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, with Anaheim possibly in the mix as well. Officially, though, it’s three teams for now. The Oilers have already asked Nurse to widen that list, and he has not done it.
Each possible landing spot comes with its own obstacle. Pittsburgh was the closest thing to a real deal, but it collapsed because Edmonton would have had to retain salary, and the Oilers would not go there.
Boston has interest, but the Bruins need to clear cap space before anything can move forward. Philadelphia is also genuinely interested, but they have to move money out first; they’ve been trying to trade Rasmus Ristolainen and are running into problems of their own.
Anaheim may be the cleanest fit financially, but Nurse has not yet agreed to waive his no-movement clause for the Ducks.
David Pagnotta added on Hello Hockey that an Anaheim deal would likely require no salary retention from Edmonton, while a Philadelphia move could involve a modest retained amount. Edmonton is also still pressing Nurse to expand his list beyond the current group, but so far he hasn’t budged.
That leaves Bowman and the Oilers stuck in a market where every door has a lock on it. Pittsburgh wants retention.
Boston needs cap room. Philadelphia needs to move salary.
Anaheim still isn’t approved. There may be three or four names on the board, but none of them are clean.
One detail matters here, too: Nurse has signing bonuses on his contract, which reduce the actual money owed to him. Those bonuses are not paid on July 1. They come in November, December, and February, so July 1 has zero bearing on the money owed.
In Other News...
Oilers Just Got Linked To A Cap Crunch Gamble Up Front
The Oilers are again being mentioned as a team that could take a swing up front, this time with Jesperi Kotkaniemi surfacing as a possible offseason target as Carolina looks to reshape its roster and clear room under the cap. Edmontons interest makes sense on paper because the club has been searching for more help at forward while also living with its own cap pressures, which makes any potential addition a balancing act from the start.
A move like this would almost certainly need Carolina to absorb a chunk of the contract to make the math work, and that kind of arrangement is exactly why these talks tend to stay complicated until late in the process. For Edmonton, the appeal is obvious enough, but the real question is whether the price and the retained salary line up well enough for a team that has to be careful with every bit of flexibility it has left. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Suddenly Have A Drew Doughty Question Worth Asking
A Drew Doughty conversation is suddenly worth having again, and for Edmonton it starts with the simple reality that the Kings veteran is not locked in the way marquee defensemen usually are. Elliotte Friedmans reporting has opened the door just enough to make the idea linger, especially with Doughty carrying a seven-team trade list and the Oilers always looking at ways to reshape the blue line around their window.
Darnell Nurse adds the other half of the equation, because his contract situation gives Edmonton a rare bit of flexibility if the right hockey trade ever surfaced. Nothing is confirmed and the whole thing remains speculative, but when a deal can be framed around two established defensemen and meaningful cap consequences, it is the kind of possibility that gets teams, and fans, wondering how far it might realistically go. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Face A Tough Free Agency Call On Familiar Pest
Mason Marchment has spent the better part of his career carving out the same kind of niche that tends to draw interest in Edmonton: a winger who can score, get under opponents skin and make life uncomfortable in the hard areas of the ice. For the Oilers, that combination is easy to understand. He brings a track record of finishing chances and an edge that can fit alongside skilled forwards, which is why he keeps coming up as a plausible offseason target.
The harder part is sorting out the cost of adding that kind of player, because Marchments game has always carried some baggage with it. He moves around the league with a reputation as a pest, and the concerns are not about whether he can bother opponents - it is whether his penalties and defensive impact outweigh the offense when the games tighten up. Edmonton can use more scoring support, but deciding whether Marchment is the right kind of it is exactly the kind of free agency question that lingers into summer. [Read more 🡒]