Sharks get: Defenseman Darnell Nurse
Oilers get: Defensemen Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zack Sharp
Harman Dayal: It’s no secret the Sharks needed to overhaul their blue line this summer. San Jose’s forward group is playoff-caliber, but its back end was arguably the worst in the NHL this past season, as Dmitry Orlov, Mario Ferraro, John Klingberg and Timothy Liljegren were the team’s top four in average ice time. The Sharks’ blue line has certainly leveled up after adding Michael Kesselring (an excellent buy-low move), Jacob Trouba and Nurse, but the contractual value of the latter two is questionable.
San Jose has an abundance of short-term cap space, so overpaying for either Trouba or Nurse as a veteran top-four minute-muncher made sense, but having both eat up a combined $17.5 million against the cap for the next four years is quite inefficient.
Nurse is athletic and physically gifted, but he’s prone to big mistakes with and without the puck, and his passing on breakouts is often a weakness. It’s fascinating, stylistically, that between Nurse, Trouba and Kesselring, San Jose has three defensemen who love to aggressively jump up in the rush but get caught out of position and don’t always make the smartest reads. It’s a trio that will likely have many highs and lows.
The Sharks still have roughly $14 million in projected cap room (before accounting for RFA Collin Graf’s next contract), and Dmitry Orlov’s $6.5 million AAV is coming off the books at the end of next season, so Nurse’s $9.25 million AAV won’t be prohibitive in the short term.
However, the worry is that this could create cap problems down the road. Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith and Yaraslov Askarov will need new contracts next summer. Michael Misa, Sam Dickinson and Igor Chernyshov will also be RFAs in the summer of 2028, not to mention Ivar Stenberg in 2029. In other words, San Jose has boatloads of cap space now, but it’s going to disappear pretty quickly because their best young players will be in line for massive raises very shortly.
Nurse and Trouba will be in their mid-30s by the end of this decade and will still be on the books just as the Sharks’ young core is ascending and becoming more expensive. Right as that Cup window should theoretically be opening, Nurse’s deal could be troublesome.
From Edmonton’s perspective, it’s a major win to get out of Nurse’s full contract without any retention. Mukhamadullin could turn into a decent third-pair defenseman, but the bigger question is how the Oilers will deploy these cap savings, as they still have more than $10 million remaining even after the reported Ryan Shea signing. If they hit on one or two impact players, it will make an already smart cap dump look even better.
Sharks grade: C
Oilers grade: A-
Corey Pronman: Nurse is paid a bit too much money and isn’t the player he once was, but he’s still a solid No. 3 or No. 4 defenseman. He’s a huge and highly mobile defenseman who is very physical and can make a lot of stops. His puck play is frustrating. He has decent enough touch and sense, but he can make a lot of mistakes with the puck and he’s at his best when he’s not asked to do too much and can embrace his unique profile.
Mukhamadullin is a mobile, tall defenseman who can make a pass and is quite effective at moving pucks up ice. He has length, but he’s not overly hard to play against, relying on his reach and feet to break up plays. He projects out long-term as a No. 4 or No. 5 type of defender.
Sharp had a nice year in college at Western Michigan. He’s quite mobile and is a good college defender, but his puck play and IQ are average at best and he projects to be below-average with the puck at the next level. He’s probably an AHLer.
San Jose takes on a tough deal, but they get the best player in the deal at a position they need and add veterans to a very young team. Edmonton, which is trying to win, is a worse team today even if its cap situation is better.
Sharks grade: B+
Oilers grade: B-
