No-Movement Clause (NMC) vs. No-Trade Clause (NTC)
Deadline time is approaching and the media is ablaze over what will happen to players in regards to waiving their NMC’s or NTC’s. The problem is they rarely, if ever, take the time to explain the terms. I’ve had a few people ask me what each one means and what the differences are so I thought I’d address that here.
No-Trade Clause (NTC):
No-trade clauses protect players from being moved through trade to another team without their consent. Examples of Leafs holding such contracts are Mats Sundin, Tomas Kaberle and Darcy Tucker. For any of these players to be traded, they have to consent to waiving the clause in their contract. The waiving of an NTC is not a black or white decision, as players have the right to specify that their no-trade clause will be waived only for certain teams. The no-trade clause does not protect players from being put on waivers and/or sent to the minor leagues and/or being bought out from their current contracts.
No-Movement Clause (NMC):
A player holding a no-movement clause can not be moved from the team without his consent in any way including trades, waivers and demotion to the minors. The NMC however does not protect players from being bought out of the remaining time on their contract. Bryan McCabe is the prime example of a player with a no-movement clause. The NMC protects McCabe both from being traded and from being put on waivers to try and the clear cap space eaten up by his contract.
Stumble it!
February 19th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Ryan…
On the subject on NTCs, do you (or anyone else) know the details of Kubina’s deal? Several reports have said he can be traded to a list of “pre-specified” teams. I just finished a post on my blog where I asked which teams are on the list, who got to specify them, when the list is created, etc.
As best I can tell, nobody seems to know. This seems like it would be important, yes?
Sean
February 19th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Sean,
Good post. At this point I think the media is just spouting out whatever they hear from any source thet can get their hands on. The General Manager of a McDonalds is still a GM right? So they’re a good source!
I’d like to see NHL contracts disclosed to fans and media. It’d make things a lot easier on us all.