{"id":492110,"date":"2026-06-19T10:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T14:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=492110"},"modified":"2026-06-19T10:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T14:51:13","slug":"nhl-rumours-pens-oilers-def","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/06\/19\/nhl-rumours-pens-oilers-def\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Pittsburgh Penguins Top Team on Edmonton Defenceman’s Trade List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darnell Nurse<\/a> has been a polarizing name around NHL Rumours over the past few weeks, with talk that he could be moved from the Edmonton Oilers in order to shed cap space. The veteran defenceman has recently renounced his no-trade contract, electing to name five teams he would allow a trade to. Among these teams are the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team with which Oilers general manager Stan Bowman already has some recent experience trading with. A potential move with Pittsburgh Penguins President of Hockey Operations Kyle Dubas certainly looks like it could be on the cards shortly.<\/p>\n

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Credit Image: \u00a9 Brian Mcwalters\/Cal Sport Media<\/span><\/p>\n

NHL Rumours Revolving around Darnell Nurse to the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/h2>\n

Analysis: As reported by David Pagnotta of the Fourth Period, his sources have reported that the Pittsburgh Penguins are at the top of Darnell Nurse’s trade list. It seems Bowman and Dubas are working on a potential deal for the big defender, one that could be finalized at or around the NHL Entry Draft. A trade between these teams could make sense, with Pittsburgh having made another big trade with Edmonton in the 2025-26 NHL season. For the Oilers, this move would allow the organization to free up much-needed cap space as they continue to work towards extensions for unrestricted free agents like Jack Roslovic<\/a> and Connor Murphy<\/a>. Meanwhile, the Penguins continue their hybrid re-tool by adding another veteran defenceman, weaponizing their mountain of salary cap space.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coming off back-to-back Stanley Cup Final losses in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, the Edmonton Oilers failed to make it past round one in 2025-26, dropping a six-game series to the upstart Anaheim Ducks. It was a rollercoaster season for Edmonton, one in which injuries and shaky goaltending continued to halt any momentum the team’s top stars tried to establish. In December of 2025, the Oilers finally traded their starting netminder<\/a>, Stuart Skinner<\/a>, after years of up-and-down perfomances to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Tristan Jarry. The move was immediately a controversial one, as Jarry spent time in the American Hockey League just a year prior after passing through waivers unclaimed. While Skinner fared better in Pittsburgh, both teams saw first-round exits in their respective playoff runs. This relationship is the basis from which the Oilers are now looking to move their Nurse and his inflated contract. Seen as a solid second-pairing defenceman, Nurse is making a staggering $9.25 million per season for the next four seasons. With just $14.5 million in cap space, Edmonton has a handful of players needing new contracts before even thinking of upgrading the rest of the roster, making this a necessary move for the organization.<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Penguins Continue to Weaponize Their Cap Space<\/h2>\n

A consistent move in Kyle Dubas’ arsenal as Pittsburgh’s President of Hockey Operations has been utilizing open roster space and cap space in order to gain assets while marginally improving the team. The organization previously brought in players like Kevin Hayes<\/a>\u00a0and Cody Glass, taking on their cap hits while receiving assets to do so in smart moves. Some of these players, like Sam Girard in the Brett Kulak trade,<\/a> are ones that have become contributors in the line-up that could be flipped for further assets later. This would be the most likely goal in a potential Nurse trade for the Penguins. Sitting on a whopping $37.8 million in cap space, with goaltender Arturs Silov and restricted free agent Egor Chinakhov being the only notable names left to sign, Pittsburgh is in a fantastic spot to add a solid, top-four level defenceman to its roster and receive assets back for doing so. The asking price for such a move would likely be a draft pick or two, or maybe even a prospect, all the while acquiring an immediate contributor that would slot into the team’s top four alongside Girard, Kris Letang, and Erik Karlsson.<\/p>\n

A Move With Some Urgency<\/h2>\n

A potential Darnell Nurse trade is one that is likely to happen sooner rather than later. With about a week until the NHL Entry Draft, and under two weeks from what is sure to be an expensive free agency, the onus is on Oilers management to figure out the roster and give superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl the best chances to win their first Stanley Cup. As such, watch for a move between Edmonton and a team like the Penguins that will see Nurse end his long-running tenure with the Oilers in exchange for increased cap space. For Edmonton, this is a massive move to get done with business, like the potential hiring of Mike Babcock, also on the horizon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Darnell Nurse has been a polarizing name around NHL Rumours over the past few weeks, with talk that he could be moved from the Edmonton Oilers in order to shed cap space. The veteran defenceman has recently renounced his no-trade contract, electing to name five teams he would allow a trade to. Among these teams […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5231,"featured_media":467804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,23,4547,34,4548,4321],"tags":[192,6023],"class_list":["post-492110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-penguins","category-oilers","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","category-rumours","tag-darnell-nurse","tag-pittsburgh-penguins-rumors"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492110"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492145,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492110\/revisions\/492145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}