Эдмонтон Ойлерс баг 12 улирлын турш хүчин зүтгэсэн туршлагатай хамгаалагч Дарнелл Нурсыг Сан-Хосе Шаркс руу шилжүүлж, хариуд нь хамгаалагчид Шакир Мухамадуллин болон Зак Шарп нарыг авахаар тохиролцжээ.
Лхагва гарагт албан ёсоор зарласан энэхүү солилцооны дараа Сан-Хосе Шаркс багийн ерөнхий менежер Майк Гриер Дарнелл Нурсыг багийн хамгаалалтын шугамыг хүчирхэгжүүлэх чухал тоглогч хэмээн онцолсон байна. 2013 оны драфтын долдугаарт сонгогдож байсан Нурс Эдмонтон Ойлерс багийн төлөө 798 тоглолтод оролцож, 88 гоол, 324 оноо авсан бөгөөд 2025-26 оны улиралд 82 тоглолтод 24 оноо цуглуулжээ.
Нурс өөрийн гэрээнд заасан шилжилт хөдөлгөөнийг хориглосон заалтыг хүчингүй болгож Сан-Хосе Шаркс багт нэгдэх шийдвэр гаргасан байна. Тэрээр 74 сая долларын өртөгтэй найман жилийн гэрээнийхээ үлдсэн дөрвөн жилийг шинэ багтаа үргэлжлүүлэн тоглох бөгөөд 2030 онд чөлөөт агент болох юм.
Шинэ багтаа ирсэн Нурс өмнөх багтаа өнгөрүүлсэн хугацаагаа дурсахдаа, олон эерэг дурсамжтай үлдсэн ч карьертаа шинэ эхлэл хэрэгтэй байсныг онцолсон байна. Тэрээр Сан-Хосе Шаркс багийн ирээдүйтэй залуу тоглогч Маклин Селебрини болон бусад бүрэлдэхүүнтэй нэгдэж байгаадаа сэтгэл хангалуун байгаагаа илэрхийлжээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
The Edmonton Oilers have traded defenseman Darnell Nurse to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for defensemen Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zack Sharp, the teams announced Wednesday.
The 31-year-old defenseman recently requested a trade and submitted a list of teams he’d be interested in moving to after spending his entire career, nearly 12 seasons, in Edmonton.
“Darnell is a strong, veteran, mobile defenseman who eats up top-pair minutes against some of the best talents in the NHL, and brings a physical element every shift,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said. “He brings significant leadership qualities and experience from his time in Edmonton, which will be valuable to our group. We’re excited to have a player like him join our organization.”
Nurse was drafted seventh overall by Edmonton in the 2013 NHL Draft. Nurse has scored 88 goals and registered 324 points in 798 career games with Edmonton, including seven goals and 24 points in 82 games in the 2025-26 season. The Hamilton, Ont., native has seven goals and 29 points in 100 career playoff games, all with the Oilers.
Nurse has four years remaining on an eight-year contract totaling $74 million, which carries a $9.25 million annual cap hit and will bring him to unrestricted free agency in 2030. Nurse’s contract has a full no-movement clause that carries over. His contract switches to a modified 10-team no-trade clause on June 1, 2027, according to PuckPedia.
In a conference call with media members, Nurse confirmed the reports of a preferred trade list that included the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins. But as the Oilers were unable to make a deal happen, Nurse looked at other situations and saw the Sharks as one worth waiving his full NTC for.
“I was going through a process and there was a few options that I think at the beginning of my process just made the most sense in my mind,” he said. “For me, I went through a deep dive of what I thought was best. Also talked to a lot of people that I respected in hockey, outside of hockey. … Every time I brought up San Jose, even when they weren’t on my small list, everyone was like, ‘You’d be crazy not to go there. It’s an amazing opportunity for you.’
“I’m really happy that it shook out this way.”
Over his 12 seasons with the Oilers, Nurse became a top-four fixture in their defense corps but also took a lot of criticism because he struggled to live up to the massive contract he signed at that time and Edmonton’s failure to capture a Stanley Cup despite multiple playoff runs that included consecutive trips to the Cup Final.
“No one expects more of themselves than me,” he said. “No one is going to expect more of myself and the way I play than myself, if I’m being quite honest. Joe from down the street could be mad because he can’t drink his beer and watch the second round of the playoffs, but I live with each and every game, each and every moment throughout the summer and try to learn from it, grow from it. So for me, yeah, I think there were times that definitely, when you have a high cap hit, there was things that were definitely warranted, that my play definitely warranted them.
“I would say you can look and see there was probably a lot of things as well that probably weren’t warranted, and for whatever reason I was the problem. That’s sports though. That’s how it works, I think. Especially in big markets and whatnot, you’re never going to sell newspapers; you’re never going to be able to get the attention without going negative. And I think someone’s got to bear the brunt of that. For me, when you’re making a lot of money and you’re not performing — and like I said, there was a lot of moments that I felt like I needed to perform better and I didn’t — but once you become that target, sometimes that target isn’t moving off you.
“For me, it’s a fresh start.”
During his call, Nurse also reflected on the positive aspects of playing his career in a hockey-obsessed city. When he reached the Oilers as a full-time player in 2015-16, Nurse also had Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl at the beginning of their careers, but Edmonton was still on a run of 10 consecutive seasons without a playoff berth. It also was where his three sons were born.
“I can remember a lot of days when we were out of the playoffs by February,” Nurse said. “We were working and trying to get ourselves to be a confident team and a playoff team and a competitor, and we worked our way into that mold and into that team. … Yeah, there’s a lot of great memories in the sense of watching my family grow, watching the guys on the team grow. Watching the city grow as a hockey market when the playoffs came back. Watching that part grow, too.
“Like I said, there’s a lot of great memories. I think it’s easy to sit here in the present and think of all the negative things. But at the end of the day, there’s a lot of positive to look back on and I’m grateful for my time there.”
The Sharks were very active on the first day of free agency as they signed defenseman Jacob Trouba and winger Mason Marchment. They’ve now added Nurse in a trade after previously acquiring Michael Kesselring to reshape their top two pairings on the blue line.
Like Trouba and Marchment, Nurse expressed intrigue at the prospect of playing with burgeoning superstar Macklin Celebrini. The two were teammates with young Sharks defenseman Sam Dickinson at the world championships earlier this year, with Celebrini captaining Team Canada.
“If I wanted to change and go somewhere else, I’m going to go somewhere it’s exciting to play and adds to the group,” Nurse said. “I think meeting those guys and hearing some stories about the locker room and the team and obviously playing against the team and seeing the promise that they have made, it all shook out in the end. An exciting place to go.”
