What is the point of a no movement clause in the NHL anymore?

It happens time and time again. The NHL keeps running into an issue where teams try and trade their players with no-movement clauses. While the NHL is a business, I think teams should understand what they are handing out when it comes to No Trade Clauses or No Movement Clauses.

This article was sparked when rumors surfaced that the Tampa Bay Lightning were looking to trade Ryan McDonagh in order to clear up some cap space. McDonagh had been with the team since a trade during the 2017-18 season and signed a massive seven-year contract extension in July of 2018 that carried a cap hit of 6.75 million a season through the 2026 season.

One part of the contract extension was a no-trade clause that kicked in at the start of the deal and turned into a modified no-trade clause during his last season in 2025-26. The Lightning asked McDonagh to waive his no-trade clause in order to clear up some cap space for the team.

A two-time Stanley Cup Champion who had been a part of one of the best blue lines in the league was asked to waive his no-trade clause because of a cap issue he didn’t call. Hockey is a business, and getting to ask your players to give up a part of the deal that they signed seems wrong.

McDonagh has shown he is a team player and it definitely seems to fit that he would waive his clause to help better the team – even if that means he is traded.

Asking your players to waive their clauses seems wrong. It could be leaked that a player refuses and then all of a sudden the relationship between the organization and the player or the player and the plans will be totally thrown away. It could create a bad environment for the team and the player in question and just does not seem right.

Hockey is a business and getting to just ask your players to give up a part of their contract seems wrong. Players get to hold that card and use it when they see fit like when Jack Eichel waived his clause to get out of Buffalo, this is one chip that teams shouldn’t get to hold against their players.

The Tampa Bay Lightning ended up trading Ryan McDonagh to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Philippe Myers and Grant Mismash.

"“If we didn’t live in a flat salary-cap world, it would never have crossed my mind to ask Ryan McDonagh to waive his no-trade clause,” explained Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois. “Because I would’ve been ecstatic to know that I had him under contract for four more years.”"

The deal was primarily a salary cap move for the Lightning who then used a piece of that cap space to re-sign Nick Paul to a massive extension keeping him in Tampa for the next handful of seasons.