Trade rumours around the NHL are starting to pick up as the Stanley Cup Final comes to an eventual close. And one deal that the Toronto Maple Leafs are most likely not going to be involved in is with the Edmonton Oilers and Darnell Nurse.
Reports have come out that Nurse has requested a trade from the Oilers as he saw his ice-time diminish and his $9.25-million AAV cap hit become some sort of burden that every single fan and front office member is probably complaining about. So he'll pack his bags and gladly leave the situation.
Nurse has a full no-movement clause so he gets full control where he gets to go. The Hamilton, Ont. native has reportedly given the Oilers a list of 3-5 teams for them to make a deal with and it certainly seems like the Leafs are not on it.
Maple Leafs probably not on Darnell Nurse's trade list
On Friday's episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, Elliotte Friedman dived into the Nurse situation and speculated on what approved teams are potentially on his list of destinations.
"If there is a West team -- and I say I stress if because I don't know -- I would think it would be LA. Simply because he knows the manager there. But I have heard the preference is East and not likely to be in Canada," Friedman said. "The reason I think this got out after a few days or even a week of conversations, is I think some teams who weren't on the list started to get wind of it and started to ask 'Okay, are we on the list? If not, could we get on the list?'"
Nurse does appear to want to come to the Eastern Conference but the stressor that it is not going to be in Canada is certainly a big deal. Of course, who would want to join the Ottawa Senators? But it does also mean that the Maple Leafs are most likely not one of those final teams.
The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta added to this and reported that the Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins are two teams who are on Nurse's list. And, while they may not be officially on the list, the Philadelphia Flyers have also been linked to a move for the 31-year-old blueliner.
It seems like there are lots of fits elsewhere in the Eastern Conference, but he does not want to spend the final four years of his massive contract potentially playing in front of his hometown crowd.
