Oilers did what no other team could: Traded away the NHL's 6th worst contract

Darnell Nurse spent his entire career in Edmonton.

Drafted seventh overall back in 2013, he became a fixture on the blue line, played in two straight Stanley Cup Finals, and earned the kind of trust that turned into an eight year, $74 million dollar extension in 2021.

Somewhere along the way that contract stopped looking like a reward and started looking like a problem nobody wanted to touch.

This past season Nurse posted just 24 points in 82 games and went pointless through six playoff games.

At $9.25 million a year for four more seasons, he had quietly become one of the worst contracts in the league, the kind of deal that usually just sits on a roster until it expires.

Nurse asked out. He gave the Oilers a short list of teams he would accept a trade to, and when nothing came together, he widened it.

That opened the door for GM Stan Bowman to call San Jose.

On July 1, the Oilers sent Nurse to the Sharks for defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin and prospect Zack Sharp, and Edmonton kept none of the salary.

The entire $9.25 million walked out the door with him.

Most GMs spent this summer stuck. They either had to retain salary to move a bad deal or couldn't find a taker at all.

Bowman found a division rival in San Jose that had the cap space and the appetite for a gamble, and he didn't have to sweeten the pot to get it done.

It's the rare version of addition by subtraction, and Edmonton walked away from it lighter in every sense.

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