A single veto reportedly derailed a blockbuster swap that would have sent the veteran defenseman to Boston, forcing Edmonton to pivot toward a massive salary cap clearance.
Darnell Nurse ended up with the San Jose Sharks, but it turns out that wasn't Nurse's or Edmonton's first choice.
David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports that the Boston Bruins and the Edmonton Oilers had a trade in place to send Nurse to Boston. A player who was part of the deal to head to Edmonton exercised their no-trade clause and vetoed it.
Apparently, that player was Nikita Zadorov.
It should be stated that there is no confirmation of this. At this point, it's a single report from a less-popular account claiming to have been told this first hand. This report hasn't been backed up by the Elliotte Friedmans, Pierre LeBruns, Darren Dregers, or Chris Johnstons of the hockey world. In fact, Pagnotta didn't even mention a name in his report.
All that said, it is interesting that a player with a no-trade reportedly declined to come to Edmonton.
David Pastrnak, Elias Lindholm, Casey Mittelstadt, Morgan Geekie, Pavel Zacha, Tanner Jeannot, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, William Borgen, Jeremy Swayman, and Zadorov have them.
We can rule out most of those players immediately.
Swayman, Zadorov, Jeannot, and one or two others might have been possibilities, but it's hard to know who the Bruins would have been open to moving to acquire Nurse and what the conditions would have been.
For arguments sake, if we assume the Zadorov report is true, the framework reportedly would have sent Nurse to the Bruins, with Zadorov — or a package built around him — coming back to Edmonton. It made sense on paper for both sides: Boston has been searching for a physical, minute-eating defenseman to pair with Charlie McAvoy, and Nurse's size and skating fit that mold. Edmonton, in turn, would have received a rugged, well-traveled rearguard with size and playoff pedigree of his own.
Nurse was open to going to the Bruins, but Zadorov, who signed a six-year, $30 million deal with Boston in 2024 after winning over Bruins fans with his physical style, still carries modified no-trade protection through 2028. He might have used it here, and in previous interviews, he hasn't exactly been kind to Edmonton.
With that deal dead, the Oilers pivoted.
Nurse ultimately went to San Jose in exchange for defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin, with the Sharks taking on the entirety of his contract — an outcome that, in hindsight, may have worked out just fine for Edmonton.
Zadorov is a more well-rounded player than Mukhamadullin, but he also comes with three years remaining on his deal at a $5 million cap hit, plus his own extensive injury history from a physical style of play. Getting out from under Nurse's money with no retention attached, as the Oilers ultimately did with San Jose, is a clean outcome that the Oilers used to sign several pieces, including Frederik Andersen, Kasperi Kapanen, Max Jones, Mathieu Joseph, and Ryan Shea.
Still, it's a reminder of just how much control modern no-move and no-trade clauses hand to players on both ends of a deal — and how a single "no" from a role player can reroute an entire blockbuster trade.
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