An executive is fed up with players who have too much power

Mathis Therrien
An executive is fed up with players who have too much power
Credit: Capture d'écran | YouTube

For several years now, National Hockey League players seem to have been gaining more and more power, both in contract negotiations and in their trade requests.

Teams are feeling much more pressure than before to respect their players' wishes and needs, to avoid gaining a bad reputation among players throughout the NHL.

With social media these days, news spreads very quickly.

Players therefore have more power today, and let's just say they don't hesitate to use it, as we've seen time and again in various situations.

We're thinking, for example, of Adam Fox, who didn't want to play for the Calgary Flames—even though they'd drafted him—or Cutter Gauthier, who left the Philadelphia Flyers under complicated circumstances, or even Matthew Tkachuk; in short, the list goes on.

And with the recent trade requests from Dylan Larkin, Brady Tkachuk, and Quinn Hughes, well, it's clear that team executives often have no choice but to respect their players' choices and preferences—especially when those players have no-trade or no-movement clauses.

Well, in this regard, an NHL executive has expressed his dissatisfaction with players who request a trade despite their contract clauses—and let's just say it's pretty intense.

The proposal would be that any trade request voids any no-trade or no-movement clauses, thereby allowing the team to trade the player wherever it wishes—not just to a limited list of teams chosen by the player.

The executive seems to be really fed up with players taking the power to include a clause in their contracts, only to then put their team in a very uncomfortable position with a trade request.

These various clauses limit teams to just a few possible destinations for a trade, which severely weakens their bargaining power to secure the best possible return in a deal.

So I understand this executive's perspective and his frustration, but a solution where a trade request would void any clause in a contract completely negates the purpose and importance of those clauses.

They exist precisely for this kind of situation, and before including such a clause, teams must think twice and ensure that the player is committed to staying with their organization for the long term.

Otherwise, removing the clauses as soon as a trade request is made would strip players of all power and negate the common sense behind these various clauses.

In short, I understand the frustration and discontent with the enormous power that players have gained—and continue to gain—in the NHL, but that's just the way it is, and we can't change the rules just for that reason.


In a Nutshell

– To be continued.

– He had been acquired in exchange for Joshua Roy.

– Interesting.

– An interesting move in Major League Baseball.

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