The San Jose Sharks aimed to add some veteran help to their young blueline this summer. In the end, it evidently came down to Sharks GM Mike Grier trading for either Darnell Nurse of Edmonton or Morgan Rielly of Toronto.

And it was the Oilers who won out in this race to dump salary on San Jose, making the critical move that opened up cap space to bring in d-man Ryan Shea and goalie Frederick Andersen, re-sign forward Kasperi Kapanen, and go into the season with extra cap space.

As NHL insider Elliotte Friedman said on Sportsnet today about the Sharks this July: “Look, it’s interesting. They could have had Rielly, they got Nurse. I heard they really preferred Nurse. I heard that was a preference. They had a choice and they took Nurse over Rielly.”

1. The choice of Rielly, 32, or Nurse, 31, was indeed an interesting one, an offensive d-man criticized for his two-way play vs a big, physical d-man in Nurse hammered for his two-way play in the playoffs, with both on the hot seat for their big contracts. Nurse has four years left at $9.25 million per year. Rielly has four years left at $7.25 million.

Of course, San Jose will now pay Nurse, while Rielly so far remains with the Leafs. Edmonton was able to move out Nurse with zero salary retention, a huge win for the Oilers.

2.  Toronto has many great sane and sensible fans. I converse with a number of them on X. That city also has a handful of excellent hockey writers, reporters and columnists, including Friedman himself, the top insider in the NHL hands down — and it’s not close. He’s the McDavid of insiders just now.

But it’s hard not for many an Oilers fan, including me, to take some delight in the Oilers beating out Toronto in the San Jose salary dump race, mainly due to the endless stream of anti-Edmonton Oilers nonsense coming from some Toronto media buffoons, mainly around their intense jealousy of the Oilers employing Connor McDavid and their fantasy that McDavid will one day play for the Leafs.

Their proclivity to put the darkest spin on all things Oilers is no doubt impressive, but it leaves me cold about their own favourite team.

3. In all fairness, it’s easy to see why San Jose chose Nurse over Rielly, even as Rielly is a better puck mover. For one thing, Nurse is big, tough and often physical. He’s been a beast over the years standing up for his Oilers teammates. San Jose many young star players who could use someone to watch their back. Nurse is also a year younger than Rielly.