San Jose Sharks shake up their blue line by acquiring Darnell Nurse from the Edmonton Oilers—can the veteran defenseman rediscover his form in the Bay Area? JD Young uncovers why the Oilers were eager to move Nurse, examining his controversial $9.25 million contract, fit within the Sharks’ defensive core, and the expectations for his role alongside talents like Sam Dickinson and Dmitry Orlov.
Special guest Nick from Locked On Oilers reveals what truly went wrong in Edmonton, highlighting Nurse’s inconsistent decision-making, his past success in offensive roles, and the challenge of living up to a massive contract. Key takeaways include the Sharks’ strategy to maximize Nurse’s strengths, the importance of finding the right defensive partner, and projections for both his immediate and long-term future in San Jose. Will Nurse thrive as a reliable presence, or will his struggles follow him to the Shark Tank?
Timestamps:
00:00 Darnell Nurse deep dive
06:27 Evaluating Darnell Nurse’s performance
07:34 Analyzing a player’s offensive skills
10:15 Nick Zararis on what wrong in Edmonton
16:50 Assessing Sharks’ Defensive Lineup
18:02 Discussing an inconsistent Oilers player
24:08 Pairing Orlov with Darnell Nurse
26:54 Evaluating Darnell Nurse’s future impact
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This should be one of the highest viewed videos ever. Considering Nurse is the most beloved and respected player in the NHL. 🤷♂️ 🤷♂️
Thanks for the everydays JD👍👍
When captain Mack signs for 14/15 million a year to save money for McDavid and to keep us making improvements it'll be a glorious day
Don't mind the player, but not getting EDM to retain any money was a tragic mistake. Even 1-2 million.
Bottom line is he brings lots of experience and most importantly he can fight 👊🏽🤜🏽 Our youngins need all the security they can get!
Grier keeps thinking the guys he selects are going to beat father time. He's got Marchment, Nurse, Trouba and Sherwood all signed til or past age 35. That's going to be around 25% of the cap. For just 4 guys who might not even be usable by that age. That Grier didn't get some draft pick assets in return for Nurse is just sad.
Curious, has he played much on his offside? That might be useful prove useful if he can get paired with Cagnoni, for example
Nurse is an absolute stud….hes worth every penny of his contract…the Oilers Management team backed themselves into a corner by grossly mismanaging the Goalie situation, Nurse was the victim of online attacks by a very small number of idiots who wanted to scuttle the Oilers any ways possible,opponents because this is 2026 and Fans can now have online impacts.
Edmonton paid him based off of projections from one season, which happened to be a career year. He’s a fine player but just extremely over payed and that has blinded people. He’s a hell of a lot better than Leddy, Klingberg or Liljegren and has a ton of recent playoff experience. What cheaper and better defensemen were out there willing to sign in San Jose for cheap? People keep suggesting this idea but no names are ever mentioned, probably because they don’t exist
Bring on the "oh nurse-burg" scale
First of all, do people know that Darnell Nurse’s UNCLE IS DONOVAN MCNABB? I think Darnell should bring him out to San Jose at the beginning of the season. That’ll give him some leeway with an American fanbase. I’m serious, it would help his image here.
Second, dude plays every game. 20 mins. That reliability is huge.
Third, he’s friends with Drew Remenda. ‘Nuff said.
well nurse, kesselring, trouba vs leddy, klingberg, ferraro i think is an improvement coming into this season. having said that im more worreid about the trouba contract.
Sharks will love Nurse. Yes he makes mistakes but he is a great player with a great lawnmower. With the right partner he is a great defenceman.
Nurse paired with Orlov? Yeah, that’s the most Warsofsky pairing we can imagine lmao. Nick said that he’s better at stay home defense and you want to play him as a puck mover lol. He better be paired with Kesselring. If Kesselring bounce back how we all expect, he can provide good 2 way game while Nurse will be more defensive. Hopefully it will be like this:
Nurse-Kesselring
Dickinson-Trouba
Cagnoni-Orlov
Nurse could absolutely be in the 1st pair if he takes that defensive role and in case that Dickinson-Trouba would work better, then just move them to a 1st pair. Orlov will finally not play a big minutes and could be a great mentor and backup for Cagnoni who’s obviously more offensively gifted than Orlov.
I think the idea that bringing in Nurse means the Sharks think their timeline has changed is a little mis-guided. I prefer to think about it more as part of sculpting the culture and leadership within the team. They needed better veteran players that were inexpensive to acquire in assets, and the only way to do that is to pay a premium in salary.
I didn't want the Sharks to go get Nurse, and if they did I'd have liked it to be a cheaper deal. That said, I can see the fit and the reason to get him.
I think Zararis has it right. Just having a few average blue line pairings will be a big improvement for the Sharks.
Also, I think it's important for the kids to get that attitude that physical play is something you do rather than something you take, and you can't really do that without some genuinely mean guys on your team to show it, and the Sharks have intentionally drafted really smart good people over the years and haven't really added that many a$$holes. As one of the former a$$holes I know every team needs them on the ice. Nurse, Trouba, and Marchment all have great "teammate" reps and are capable a$$holes on the ice.
I'm going to be honest.
I think for a young team like the Sharks Nurse is a great player and a much better value proposition than he was for the Oilers.
He helped lead the Oilers to the cup finals and was there for the entire rebuild and their ascension to a cup contending team.
He played a critical leadership role alongside the best player in the world (McDavid) and can bring these qualities to a young, inexperienced team like the Sharks.
There's a lot of intangibles that are huge benefits when it comes to Nurse and i hope people can look past the fact his contract wasn't a good fit for the Oilers.
Nurse is terrible you will find out. Playoff time he's non existent. It would be okay if they kept 3.5 m to 4 million from his contract. You didn't see him choke in the national game.
Whether or not he’s making a little too much we needed defenseman and he’s a solid veteran to help lead some of the young guys along the way. He’s definitely a step up from a Kilngberg and imo a Ferraro. We’re gonna have a better team all around this season and I’m excited to see it
We are not a destination… YET! We all know the changes coming for the team, the tank and the city. Soon they'll even talk about us on KNBR and 95.7. I know I know, it sounds crazy