Report: Details of a failed trade between the Bruins & Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers were successful on day one of free agency, shedding all $9.25 million of Darnell Nurse's contract. General manager Stan Bowman traded the veteran defenseman to the San Jose Sharks for Zack Sharp and Shakir Mukhamadullin.

Nurse was linked to multiple NHL teams, including the Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, and San Jose Sharks. It seemed at one point he was destined for the Eastern Conference, and to give the Bruins much-needed muscle on the blueline. 

But the trade between the Sharks and Oilers shocked us all. Considering it was an in-conference deal, where the Oilers may have won the deal, you wonder what pieces would've come back to the Oilers if a deal materialized with the Bruins. 

According to The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta, one piece the Oilers would've received in return: nixed the trade. Puck Empire speculates that the player involved was Nikita Zadorov. While Bruins fans believe it was more likely to be Hampus Lindholm, or Henrik Jokiharju (who had an 8-team NTC). 

The player was Nikita Zadorov from what I'm told https://t.co/01ykkOsroR

— PuckEmpire (@puckempire) July 2, 2026

Instead of a deal moving forward, Zadarov struck a deal down, effectively taking the Bruins out of the race for Nurse. 

A player who could've been a penalty-killer, an option on the power-play, and a bruiser on the blueline, at a costly $9.25 million average annual value. 

Instead, the Bruins' folly allowed GM Bowman to restock their prospect pipeline and add a potential top defenseman in Mukhamadullin from the Sharks. 

 The Bruins would instead add Will Borgen, Connor Clifton, and depth players at free agency, where GM Don Sweeney said he thought they were still a competitive team after July 1st. 

“I can’t handicap where we are relative to other teams but we feel like we addressed some needs. We wanted to continue to improve,” said Sweeney. “Some of that’s based on ‘what is the internal growth?’ I think we’re back to being a competitive team with a little more balance to hopefully to continue to attack … and be a threat. We stood here a year ago and wondered whether we were going to score enough goals. And to the players’ credit and coaches’ credit, they found ways.

The team traded Joonas Korpisalo and promoted Michael DiPietro due to his excellent play in the AHL with the Providence Bruins last season. It's a shame, since Nurse seems like a prototypical defenseman who embodies the "big, bad Bruins" of the past.