NHL Salary Cap Topics > No Trade/Movement Clauses

No Trade/Movement Clauses

Players can have no trade or no movement protection in their contracts:

No Trade Clause (NTC): A player cannot be traded without permission

No Movement Clause (NMC): A player cannot be traded or placed on waivers without permission. Waivers are needed to send players to AHL.

Modified No Trade or No Movement (M-NTC or M-NMC): Players submit a list of teams they can or cannot be traded to. Language & # of Teams varies by contract.

Eligibility

Players are only eligible for No Trade or No Movement clauses in years when they meet the eligibility requirements for Unrestricted Free Agency.  

Clauses after Trades

If a player is traded before a NTC or NMC starts, the clause is removed unless the acquiring team agrees to keep it, which is rare.

If a player has a Modified NTC or NMC in effect, and a player is traded to a team that is permitted based on the list (no waiving of the clause is required), the clause remains in effect after the trade. 

If a player waives a clause for a trade, they generally agree to waive it only for the purposes of that specific trade, so the acquiring team agrees to put it back in place.

Update in 2020 MOU: No-Trades & No-Moves travel with the Player when traded or waived. This means that if a player is traded before the clause goes into effect, the clause will no longer be removed with the new team. If players have already lost their clause due to being traded prior to it starting, they will not be re-instated.

Insights and Insiders

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