The moment Darnell Nurse announced his request to be traded from the Edmonton Oilers, those eager to picture a potential landing spot found one.The Los Angeles Kings.Laugh if you must. Fill yourselves with outrage if need be. Demand firings if it’s your wish.But is a Nurse-to-L.A. trade scenario plausible? Completely.As The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman recently wrote, Nurse’s deficiencies as a defenseman have been widely chronicled. But the narrative around him often starts with his contract: an eight-year deal with a $9.25 million average annual value negotiated in the summer of 2021.Who signed him to that contract? None other than Ken Holland, who runs the Kings and was the Oilers’ GM at the time.Again, Nurse does have his flaws. He and the Oilers want to part ways after 13 years and 11 full seasons since Edmonton made him the seventh pick of the 2013 draft.With the hiring of Peter Laviolette as coach and plans to shift toward a more aggressive system with a highly active defense corps, Holland acknowledged that the Kings’ blueliners would not be ideal.To put it bluntly, Laviolette (and whoever will assist him in D.J. Smith’s former role running the defense) wants defensemen who can skate in what will be a demanding system. That doesn’t jibe well with the Kings’ normal six. Skating skills may be that group’s worst trait.When Laviolette was introduced last week, Holland said he was “talking with some teams” at the NHL scouting combine and that he and his new coach have discussed how to get more out of a blue line that was in the bottom third of the league in goals and points. If personnel moves are required, Holland must do better than he did last summer.The signing of free agents Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci to effectively replace Vladislav Gavrikov, who went to the New York Rangers, and Jordan Spence, who was traded to the Ottawa Senators, made the Kings less mobile. What the Kings may have gained in size was canceled out by what they lost in skating and puck movement. There was next to no dynamism on the back end, with an aging Drew Doughty less effective in the offensive end and Mikey Anderson and Joel Edmundson fitting more of a defense-first profile. Brandt Clarke, the one true offensive threat, was rarely given much of a leash by his coaches.Trusting Holland to fix those mistakes might feel like a scary proposition, but that’s the path the Kings must take given their stated belief in not rebuilding. While he’ll also need to find a quality center to fill the hole created by Anze Kopitar’s retirement, Holland has to rework a slipping defense that’s been exposed in the playoffs despite being impressive statistically.Nurse could be a fit for Laviolette’s system, though not an ideal one. He’s always had the tools: At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, he has the size that NHL teams crave. He can play a physical game, having racked up over 700 career penalty minutes, including 104 this past season, good for fifth among all defensemen. And he has averaged more than 22 minutes per game over his 12-year career, though it should be noted his 20:58 time on ice this season was his lowest since 2016-17.The main thing is Nurse can skate, which is partly why he’s been able to log a lot of minutes. Defensemen are required to move in all three zones, particularly when the team is in the offensive end. It can be taxing, but Laviolette’s teams tend to display initial effectiveness in squeezing out more offense from the blue line.Nurse has averaged nine goals and 33 points for every 82 games he plays without requiring much power-play time. His point total dipped to 24 in 2025-26, his lowest in eight years, but that total would have ranked second on the Kings’ defense behind Clarke. Nurse’s unwieldy contract has long been a problem, but it’s not as if he’s unusable.Darnell Nurse can skate and is used to seeing plenty of time on the ice. (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)There are better options for Holland to target, starting in Buffalo. The Sabres’ Bowen Byram has been featured in trade rumors as he enters a contract year. While it looks like the Sabres may let hometown standout Alex Tuch go elsewhere in search of an eight-figure salary, they could look to deal Byram before he hits the UFA jackpot in 2027. The Kings can offer a top-pairing role for Byram, who would likely remain stuck behind star Rasmus Dahlin in Buffalo.Or the Kings could see about Owen Power’s availability. Power, 23, was the No. 1 pick in 2021 and is coming off his best all-around season in Buffalo. He is already cost-controlled with an $8.35 million cap number that runs for five more seasons. Both Byram and Power would be long-term solutions. But the cost to acquire either could be too much for the Kings.After giving up top prospect Liam Greentree in the Artemi Panarin deal, the Kings would need to surrender more of their best assets. They’re not loaded with them: They have the No. 17 selection in this year’s draft, their own second-round pick and another acquired by trading Phillip Danault to Montreal. And they possess a full allotment of selections in the top two rounds starting in 2027. But their prospect pool, ranked 27th by The Athletic, is topped by a pair of goalies. Jakub Dvořák, Vojtěch Čihař and Henry Brzustewicz are the top three skaters, but any of them plus a first-round pick wouldn’t even start a conversation for Byram or Power.The Sabres would look at Clarke or winger Alex Laferriere. Buffalo is now in win-now mode after ending its 14-year playoff drought. Futures wouldn’t cut it in a Byram or Power deal. And the Kings trading away a productive young player who could have a big role with the club for years would only create another hole to fill.Nurse wouldn’t require any of that, and the Oilers are eager to free up cap space. But if Holland is interested, he must not repeat his mistake. He shouldn’t saddle the Kings with the full freight of that $9.25 million cap hit. Edmonton will want all of it off its books, but L.A. must counter with salary retention. Nurse has his warts, but a proven top-four defender at $4.625 million looks much better.The Oilers won’t want to retain 50 percent. But with 25 percent retention ($2.31 million on Edmonton’s end), the Kings could get Nurse at $6.94 million on a contract that basically lines up with their other leading players. Though Nurse’s trade request shows his willingness to waive his no-movement clause, he can be selective with the offers that Oilers GM Stan Bowman brings him.If he’s open to L.A., Holland can leverage any mutual desire for separation along with Edmonton’s continuous quest to build a championship-level team around Connor McDavid. But the Oilers won’t want to dump Nurse for nothing. Edmundson would be much more appealing to them than Dumoulin or Ceci, the latter of whom they once had when Holland ran the show. Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper might be most appealing as an upgrade over Connor Ingram and Tristan Jarry.There have been reports that Nurse’s preferred destination is a team in the Eastern Conference. But he has history with Holland and familiarity with the Western Conference. And the Kings could wait for Nurse’s $6 million signing bonus to be paid out, with the remainder of his contract lower in actual salary than his cap number.The conditions are ripe for him to be a target and for a deal to be consummated. There might be a sigh of relief if he heads elsewhere. Just don’t be shocked if he’s wearing a Kings jersey this fall.