Darnell Nurse is off the Edmonton Oilers books this summer, and no other GM in the league can say that about their worst contract.
Every team has one. A deal that looked fine on the day it was signed and now sits like an anchor on the cap sheet.
But only Oilers GM Stan Bowman actually got rid of his. He traded Nurse to San Jose without eating a dollar of retained salary.
That's the part that stands out. Four years left on the deal, no cap relief attached, and Bowman still found a taker.
The return wasn't nothing either. Edmonton got back defense prospects Shakir Mukhamadullin and Zach Sharp, with Mukhamadullin posting 12 points in 50 games last season and a gwg to his name.
Nurse now carries a $9,250,000 cap hit in San Jose. The Oilers, meanwhile, are sitting at 41-30-11 with 93 points, ranked 14th overall and second in the Pacific.
They've won six of their last 10 and rode a six-game winning streak into their last outing, a 6-1 win over Vancouver.
Huberdeau's $10.5 million anchor still has nowhere to go
Compare that to Calgary. The Athletic's Dom Luszczyszyn rates Jonathan Huberdeau's true value at $4.5 million this season, against a $10.5 million cap hit.
That's a $6.0 million overpay, the worst in the league by Luszczyszyn's numbers. And Calgary hasn't found a way to move it.
Nurse ranked sixth on that same overpay list, behind Huberdeau, Seattle's Chandler Stephenson, San Jose's Jacob Trouba, the Islanders' Ondrej Palat and Anaheim's Leo Carlsson.
None of those deals have moved. Only Nurse's did. Is that skill, timing, or just Bowman getting lucky at the right moment? Probably some of both.
The cap jumped to $104 million this year around the league, which should have made these deals easier to move, not harder.
Instead, GMs are sitting on players they can't justify paying and can't find a partner for. Bowman got out in front of that problem before it hardened.
Nurse still carries some shine from his years next to Connor McDavid and two trips to the Stanley Cup Final. That helped sell him.
Timing mattered too. Bowman moved him on July 1, right before a wave of offer-sheet activity rattled the market and made every GM nervous about future cap room.
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Whether Toronto ever finds a home for Morgan Rielly's money, or Vancouver moves off Elias Pettersson, remains an open question nobody around the league seems close to answering.
Did Stan Bowman get full value moving Darnell Nurse, or did the Oilers just dump a problem cheap?
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