Which teams are still in the running for Darnell Nurse?
Any team looking to upgrade their blueline this offseason should have Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski at the top of their wish list. But for teams that find themselves pushed out of the Werenski sweepstakes, there are other defensemen available that are worth pursuing.
One of those players is Darnell Nurse, who has requested a trade from the Edmonton Oilers. Nurse has four more years on his current contract at an average annual value (AAV) of $9.25 million. That number may look a bit steep for a player of his caliber, but Nurse could still be an intriguing option for a team looking to add size and experience on defense, especially as the NHL’s salary cap continues to rise.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Jonny Lazarus and Carter Hutton were joined by insider David Pagnotta to discuss possible landing spots for Nurse this offseason.
Carter Hutton: For the Edmonton Oilers, the relationship is toast with Darnell Nurse. What are we going to see there?
David Pagnotta: There’s still a lot of activity on Darnell Nurse. It doesn’t look like L.A. is a fit. Anaheim remains in play, and he would have to approve a trade to the Ducks, beyond his other list of teams that include Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Boston. I don’t see a fit with either Pittsburgh or Boston at the moment. Philly is still in this, but there are a few different options in the air. One includes a little bit of retention. Pittsburgh wanted a bigger chunk of retention, and it’s not going to happen, at least right now. Philly looks like it’s a little bit less retention, but they also have a few other moving parts. They’re in on Werenski, they’re talking to teams about (Rasmus) Ristolainen. It doesn’t look like, unless things have changed, that Ristolainen would go back to Edmonton as part of it if they figure out this Nurse deal.
San Jose is kind of creeping in on this as well. He would obviously need to approve for either the Ducks or the Sharks, but I wouldn’t count the Sharks out just yet. I think they circled back either late yesterday or earlier this morning. There’s obviously motivation to do this across the board. We just saw Brendan Gallagher go to Vancouver, which is more of a “find the player the right fit” scenario. They’re trying to do the same with Nurse, although there’s going to be something coming back that’s going to benefit the Oilers is come capacity when all is said and done.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Monday’s episode here…