The Nurse Trade Taught Oilers a Valuable Lesson About a Potential 2026-27 Move

For years, the Edmonton Oilers were thinking about what they could do if they cleared out $9.25 million in cap space by trading defenseman Darnell Nurse. After two seasons where they’d brought the idea to the table, it was only this summer that Nurse finally obliged and was moved to the San Jose Sharks. Everyone could see it coming. Everyone talked about it. Then, on July 1, the Oilers actually moved the entire contract, and it wasn’t just a contract dump. Edmonton shipped Nurse to San Jose for defencemen Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zack Sharp. No sweetener attached. Edmonton didn’t even retain salary.

That alone made it one of the more surprising trades of the summer. But the bigger story isn’t the trade itself — it’s everything it set in motion. The Nurse deal wasn’t an endpoint for Stan Bowman’s offseason. It was the wild card that determined how much room he’d have to work with, and the dominoes are still falling. It was also a valuable learning lesson.

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Why This Trade Was So Important to Future Business

Nurse’s contract was never just an on-ice problem — it was a math problem. At $9.25 million a year for four more seasons, it was the single biggest obstacle to Edmonton having any real flexibility. Trading him outright, without eating money in retention, cleared an incredible amount of cap space in one move — a rarer outcome than it sounds.

The timing mattered too. Nurse held a full no-movement clause, and his list of approved destinations was short at first. Once talks stalled, he widened it, and San Jose — flush with cap space and in obvious need of a blueline overhaul — emerged as one of the only real fits. The Oilers found the right time and right place to pull off what many thought was an impossible trade.

Once the deal was done, Edmonton got to work spending some of that money.

The Spending Spree That Followed

Bowman didn’t sit on the newfound room. Within days, the Oilers:

• Signed defenceman Ryan Shea to a five-year, $20 million deal — essentially the cost-controlled replacement for Nurse’s minutes.
• Re-signed winger Kasperi Kapanen.
• Brought in goaltender Frederik Andersen on a one-year, $2.8 million contract, adding a legitimate option after a rough goaltending stretch.

None of those are the type of move that generates headlines on their own, but stack them together, and you get analysts and fans agreeing that it was a solid summer. It might have even been enough to take Bowman’s name off the hot seat.

Interestingly, the last addition also opened the door for the Oilers to make another trade in 2026-27.

Now What? Does Jarry Follow Nurse Out the Door?

Tristan Jarry, acquired from Pittsburgh in a deal that cost Edmonton Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak, and a 2028 second-round pick, has been shaky since arriving — bad enough that there’s real speculation the Oilers could look to move on from him just seven months after trading for him.

Jarry carries a 12-team no-trade clause, but given how his half-season in Edmonton went, should he continue to struggle and a demotion is in his future, there’s a genuine chance he’d waive it for the right opportunity elsewhere. Finding a taker won’t be easy. However, what the Oilers proved with the Nurse trade was that anyone is tradeable.

If a $9.25 million defenseman can be moved without retention, one or two of the other 31 teams in the NHL will give Jarry a look. In the right situation, with cap space, and a hole on the roster (due to injury or something else), there’s a chance a team could see Jarry as an option, even if not the best one.

With the cap going up, Jarry isn’t expensive in the right situation.

Calling the Nurse trade impossible until it actually happened is something that should show fans and the organization that anything is possible. This isn’t a knock on Nurse. It’s an admission that most believed that deal was too pricey and too long to dump. Not only did the Oilers dump it, but they also got something back. The Oilers bought themselves flexibility. Whether that flexibility turns into another opportunity to move a player that seems untradeable remains to be seen.

What we know is that the blueprint is there: find the right time, the right team, and work with the player, but on the team’s terms.

Next: NHL Trade Talk Recap: Canadiens & Oilers Surprise Trade Win