- An NHL executive wants a player’s no-trade clause voided the second he asks out
- Andy Strickland relayed the idea as trade requests pile up around the league
- Read below for the full proposal and how the NHLPA is answering it
One NHL executive has a blunt answer for players who ask out of contracts they signed.
Void the no-trade clause.
That is the fix Andy Strickland relayed from an unnamed exec, and it would strip a player of any say in his destination the moment he requests a move.
“Speaking to an #NHL Exec…he suggests if a player negotiates a no-trade or a no move clause in their contract but then requests to be traded prior to the expiration of their deal, the NTC should be voided and the team should be allowed to trade the player to any team in the league.”
We put the quote next to Dylan Larkin, Brady Tkachuk and Quinn Hughes, three names tied to the biggest movement talk of the summer. Take a look:
The complaint from the management side is easy to follow. A clause is leverage a player negotiates for, often instead of salary, and then he uses it to pick his landing spot while the team gets whatever one or two bidders feel like offering.
Detroit lived that this summer. Larkin’s short list dragged his exit out for weeks before he added the Stars to it. In Ottawa, Steve Staios said he saw signs Brady Tkachuk wanted out more than a year before the trade to Florida.
Nobody on the players’ side is treating this as an emergency. NHLPA assistant executive director Ron Hainsey was asked about players leaning on their clauses to steer a trade toward one team, and he pointed at how fast that leverage flips.
“These things go in cycles. Two years ago, we had multiple players with no-trade clauses get waived and put on teams that were on their no-trade lists, right?”
Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey put it more plainly last month, calling this an interesting time for player power in the league.
Whatever anyone thinks of the idea, it does not happen by memo. Trade protection is written into the CBA, and the union is not handing back a negotiated clause for nothing.
