EDMONTON — The Doctor is out.

Darnell “Doc” Nurse never found the antidote to making people forget about the eight-year, $74 million deal that then-GM Ken Holland signed him to back in 2021.

So on Wednesday, after 798 regular-season games and another 100 in the post-season, the Nurse era ended in Edmonton somewhat surprisingly, when the very contract that made Nurse a target of Oilers fans and media was moved with no retention to the San Jose Sharks.

“There are a lot of conversations that go into these trades,” said general manager Stan Bowman, seemingly talked out after the three-week process of moving Nurse had concluded. “When they're finished, it looks like, ‘Oh, that's a pretty simple trade. Why didn't you do that sooner?’

“But there's a lot of factors that go into those deals to finally get it to the point where it is. Without salary retention was very important for us.”

Bowman retrieved Russian defenceman Shakir Mukhamadullin and college defenceman Zach Sharp from San Jose in the deal, freeing up as much as $8 million in cap space, depending on the cost to renew Mukhamadullin’s contract.

From there, he signed free-agent defenceman Ryan Shea........

© Sportsnet