Teams should play hardball with Oilers on Darnell Nurse

Nearly three weeks ago, multiple reports indicated Darnell Nurse requested a trade from the Edmonton Oilers.

The 31-year-old defender has four years remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $9.25 million. He’s proven to be a capable NHL defenseman, recording seven goals and 17 assists for 24 points while averaging 20:58 of ice time in 2025-26, but the amount of money he’s owed may turn some teams off from acquiring him.

On Monday, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reported the Oilers and San Jose Sharks re-engaged in trade discussions regarding Nurse, and both the Anaheim Ducks and Philadelphia Flyers have shown interest.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss the rumors surrounding Nurse and whether teams should play hardball with Edmonton as we approach free agency.

Tyler Yaremchuk: If you’re the Sharks or the Ducks, why would you do a Darnell Nurse deal before July 3? The Ducks and Sharks are doing this because they think Nurse can help them, but you have to remember that Edmonton wants to free up this cap space so they can go spend it elsewhere. I think if you’re the Ducks or the Sharks, you can sit there and play a little bit of hardball with the Oilers.

“Hey, we’ll talk to you on July 3 when the top-three free agents are off the board, then we’ll give you the cap space, then you’ll be stuck there with nothing to do with it, or you’ll have to go so far down your list that you have to sign guys that you wouldn’t have prioritized.”

I thought maybe a trade at day two of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft would be possible, since picks are always flying around that time. Now I’m more of the belief that this thing could potentially drag on until this coming weekend, and teams might not want to give Edmonton that cap space.

Carter Hutton: That’s a good theory, I like that. It’s kind of evil, Tyler. I like this version of you. But it is calculated, and it’s smart in the sense that if San Jose is your partner, you don’t want him to be in the division and giving the Oilers cap space to be better.

I think San Jose is in a really great position in the sense of how their cap is structured and the way that they drafted, and how they’ve built a homegrown team. To bite off a contract like Nurse’s, they have to be very careful. I don’t think he’d be a total hinder to their team, and they don’t have a ton of strength on their backend, but maybe you could haul in some picks so that in three, four or five years from now, when Macklin Celebrini is in his prime and Will Smith has peaked, you have so many things coming to fruition to them.

But being smart inside your division is really calculated.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…