- Shakir Mukhamadullin says San Jose made two contract offers and he rejected both
- The defenseman traces the split to his time on the injured list last season
- Read below for what he said about his ice time and his fight for an Oilers job
San Jose tried twice to sign Shakir Mukhamadullin. He said no both times.
The 24-year-old defenseman landed in Edmonton on July 1 as the main piece coming back in the Darnell Nurse trade. In an interview with Sport-Express, he was asked how the contract talks went before the deal.
“There were offers. Two of them. We just turned them down, we didn’t come to an agreement, so to speak.”
Mukhamadullin then explained when he first sensed the relationship was finished.
“The thought that our paths might separate probably showed up during the season, when that situation with the injured list came up. It had built up in me by then. That was when I gave a pretty frank interview and said I was unhappy with my ice time and with the situation in general.”
That was the most NHL work he had ever been handed, and it still was not close to enough. Mukhamadullin played 50 games for the Sharks last season with five goals, 12 points and 63 blocked shots while averaging 17:09 a night, and three separate upper-body injuries broke the year into pieces.
The trade that followed was about as blunt as they come. Edmonton sent Nurse to San Jose, took back Mukhamadullin and Zack Sharp, and kept none of Nurse’s salary on the books:
Three days later the Oilers had him signed to a two-year deal worth $1.75 million a season:
Nobody in Edmonton has promised him anything, and he knows it. He projects as a bottom-pair option on a defense corps the Oilers reshuffled from top to bottom this summer.
Mukhamadullin talked about how he feels walking into a Cup contender with no guaranteed role.
“I had some doubts, honestly. But I’m not scared. I’m not going there for easy conditions. I’m going to fight for a spot, so I have to be ready for anything.”
The Nurse side of this has been picked over all summer, right down to Connor McDavid calling himself extremely disappointed about losing a teammate of a decade. The player who replaced him has barely said a word until now.
Camp opens next month, and he walks into it fighting for a job on a blue line Edmonton spent the whole summer rebuilding.
