Do teams talk to the players they trade for beforehand?

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Let’s say it’s Brady Tkachuk and.. Utah. Utah offers a boatload and Ottawa is inclined to say yes, but Utah wants to talk to Brady first, make sure he would be ok with the move. He’s in the midst of a playoff hunt, has a NMC kicking in on July 1st- if he says “I absolutely don’t wanna play for your team and don’t think I’d be the best fit there”, obviously that lessens the likelihood of it happening. Now the player also knows they tried to trade him, so there would seem to be reasons why a team might just not alert the player at all.

I’m curious as to any insight anyone has- is there a common practice, is it case by case? I remember Kozlov was supposedly unhappy being traded to Buffalo and he played like shit as a result, and I just couldn’t believe management didn’t check about that. I’ve also heard of plenty of players who were surprised they were traded, so I guess it isn’t always done, but is it something a team can request?

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[Jovavic]

The most famous of not talking before a trade was Jeff Carter to Columbus.

 

[LemonSauceD]

I mean Rantanen looked pretty shellshocked recently. I highly doubt they came to him and said “ but first we want to know how you feel”.

if you have a full NTC or NMC, they obviously have to talk to you about it first. If you have a partial NTC and you’re traded to a team not on your list, I highly doubt they’d come and speak to you about it beforehand.

Like with JT Miller, he never asked to be traded, but because management needed to do something with the rift with Pettersson, coupled with the fact that Miller himself wanted to be done with it as well, it became a mutual agreement that if there was a team with the right offer as well as being a fit for Miller, Miller would agree to waive his NMC and the trade would happen. (The rumour he denied Colorado was reported false).

As for inquiring about the player you’re trading for, I’m not sure it’s allowed unless given permission but there are ways to obviously bypass that (talking through agents, asking teammates you’ve previously had who happens to be on the other team, family). Benning famously tried to do this with Subban and Stamkos and got reprimanded and punished, particularly with Subban.

 

[Tasteless Beaver]

Team A wouldn’t reach out directly to Team B’s player or agent. This gets communicated through the GMs and back channels with the players themselves. In Winnipeg, Chevy seems to make sure any trade target is okay with moving to Winnipeg, which the target team’s GM would have to ask the player’s agent. Anecdotally, Blake Wheeler convinced Paul Stastny that Winnipeg would be a good place to play, and I doubt the trade would’ve happened without that.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Nothing personal, it's only business.

 

[AvroArrow]

Yes, and I think it happens more than we think

 

[Rich Nixon]

Sometimes. For instance, in the recent Flyers/Flames trade, Kuzmenko had a NTC and the Flyers had to speak to him directly to get him to waive it.