“They had a trade in place with the Oilers to acquire Nurse, (but) the player going back wouldn’t waive their no-trade protection,” Pagnotta said on Friday’s episode of The Sheet. “So Edmonton obviously pivoted, went San Jose’s direction.”

While Pagnotta didn’t divulge who the player was that declined to waive, the list of players with no-trade protection is fairly limited. David Pastrnak, Elias Lindholm, and Morgan Geekie, all have no-trade clauses, but it’s highly unlikely the Bruins would’ve been willing to move any of them in a Nurse swap. Casey Mittelstadt (nine team-no-trade), Pavel Zacha (eight team-no-trade), and Tanner Jeannot all have clauses, but none of them fit what the Oilers needed.

The only other five players with protection are defencemen Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov (16-team-no-trade), a newly acquired Will Borgen (15-team no-trade), and goaltender Jeremy Swayman.

McAvoy is a huge piece of their puzzle, while it’s hard to imagine the Bruins being willing to move Swayman after the resurgence he had in the crease last year. That more or less narrows the list down to Hampus Lindholm and Zadorov.

The Oilers eventually pivoted to acquiring Shakir Mukhamadullin and prospect Zach Sharp from the Sharks, moving off of all of Nurse’s $9.25 million cap hit. One has to wonder how a trade with the Bruins could’ve changed their plans, and if that would’ve taken them out of the mix for Ryan Shea, given Hampus Lindholm and Zadorov each have four years left on contracts paying them $6.5 million and $5 million, respectively.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor and The Nation Network’s news director. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.