Report: Darnell Nurse requests trade from Oilers
Veteran Edmonton Oilers defenseman and alternate captain Darnell Nurse has requested a trade, according to a report by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Mark Spector.
Nurse, 31, skated in all 82 games with the Oilers during the 2025-26 regular season, collecting seven goals and 24 points while averaging 20:58 of ice time. The 6’4″ left-shot defender was held pointless in six playoff games as the Oilers fell to the Anaheim Ducks in the first round.
Four years are remaining on Nurse’s contract, which carries a $9.25 million annual cap hit. His deal also includes a full no-trade clause through the end of the 2026-27 season, at which point it shifts to a much less restrictive 10-team no-trade list.
“According to multiple sources, the defenceman recently went to the organization and said he would like to be traded. He now feels it is time for him to move on,” Friedman and Spector wrote Thursday. “Those same sources indicated Nurse has given a list of 3-5 teams he would consider. He has the right to limit the number of legit destinations, so we’ve got some work to do to figure it out.”
Thursday’s report comes a week after Spector indicated that the Oilers were keen on moving on from Nurse, who has spent the entirety of his 798-game career in Edmonton. Nurse is an imposing defender with a hard shot, but he has also struggled with consistency during the Oilers’ recent playoff runs and most notably saw his ice time reduced significantly in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.
Nurse signed his current contract with the Oilers after scoring 16 goals in just 56 games with the club during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season. However, his offensive output has gradually decreased in the years since, and he averaged the fewest points per game of the 26 active NHL defensemen making at least $8 million in 2025-26.
The Oilers underachieved in 2025-26 after reaching the Stanley Cup Final in each of the previous two seasons. They finished second in the Pacific Division with a 41-30-11 record and 93 points before being upset by the Ducks in the Western Conference quarterfinals. That early playoff exit cost head coach Kris Knoblauch his job, with rumors flying in the weeks since suggesting that the Oilers are looking to replace him with a veteran like Bruce Cassidy or Mike Babcock.
Edmonton originally selected Nurse with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft. In 798 career games over parts of 12 seasons with the club, Nurse has collected 88 goals, 324 points, and 725 penalty minutes; he’s added seven goals and 29 points in 100 playoff contests.