NHL Players Reportedly Bothered By Jacob Trouba Trade Saga With Rangers

[eojsmada]

I think any NTC "list" should include those teams as waiver claims as well.

I don't expect much pushback from the owners, honestly, since anytime the Owners/Players negotiate anything, it's the GM's who seem to break things.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

No doubt he could have secured a full NMC if he would have been willing to compromise on AAV, he made a choice and has to live with it, simple as that. These situations come along with the territory of being a pro athlete, nobody is forcing him into this profession, he’s more then welcome to retire and explore new opportunities but unfortunately you don’t always get to have it all as much as he may feel he’s entitled.

And let’s not act like he isn’t playing the game either, I’m sure when him and his agent sat down in the summer to submit his ntc list they tried their best to put a list together that would make it as difficult as possible to trade him, Rangers tried to find a solution, he wasn’t budging so they were prepared to go a route that he was perfectly aware could happen the day he signed his contract.

 

[smoneil]

I do feel for him then. He clearly wants to stay close with his wife/family and tried his best to create a situation where he could be. It sucks that everything didn’t go exactly how he wanted, but I’m sure he’ll be able to figure out a way to make it work.

Not entirely accurate. Trouba wanted to "stay close with his wife/family" while also collecting $8m per to perform at the level of a bottom pairing D. He could be sitting in his living room with that family right now. All he had to do was retire. You know. If that was his top priority and not collecting an absurd salary. Oh, but the Rangers signed that contract and should be bound by it, right? Absolutely, but that goes for the goose just as much as it does for the gander.

I'm all for fixing CBA issues re: movement/trade/waiver clauses, but maybe they should be fixed on both sides. If you sign a contract with a NMC and your performance drops by a certain percentage for two or more seasons, maybe the clause dissolves or downgrades to lesser protection. Maybe if a player's performance on a 2nd or later contract improves by a certain percentage, they gain movement/trade protection.

Bottom line, both sides have legitimate grievances, but if you want to "fix" them for one side, you have to address the issues on the other side as well. Frankly, I'd be curious to see how many players would be on board with the idea of connecting movement/trade clauses to performance on the ice.

 

[ratbid]

I'm typically firmly on the side of players getting more rights than they currently have. I agree they get paid well but it must suck having very little control of your life until mid to late twenties.

But this isn't new, or even surprising. It's literally set up as the difference between NMC and NTC. Like it's written into the contracts, and theres a contractual option built in to avoid this, so I don't know what they're angry about.

I guess maybe the argument is to change every NTC to an NMC, but the result will be less NTCs or a higher premium for including them in the contract.

 

[dgibb10]

All of those guys would get claims put in for them. The only difference is they’d get to choose where they want to go, which includes the option to stay in the same organization. It’s the same risk with a minor modification.

There is no risk of losing them.

Guys don't generally want to have to uproot their lives if they don't have to, especially on contenders.

They sign with the knowledge of this being the plan, and then it would be used to manipulate the salary cap.

I think any NTC "list" should include those teams as waiver claims as well.

I don't expect much pushback from the owners, honestly, since anytime the Owners/Players negotiate anything, it's the GM's who seem to break things.

Simply get the clause that prevents you from being sent down.

 

[Pablo El Perro]

Just need to get there agents to push for full NMCs. Desperate GMs will agree to them over shiny new toys.

 

[RandV]

Not surprised everyone on here had to spit out their hot take before reading the article or understanding what's actually going on with this discussion. It's a CBA issue more than a Trouba issue.

Yes this, though I guess it's more or less expected on this topic.

It's not so much a 'loophole' as it is an oversight by the PA that will likely be addressed in the CBA. Downgrading from a NMC to a NTC at the end of the contract is pretty standard for players, and while it's an unlikely scenario a GM can get around the NTC if a team on the list is willing to claim the player off waivers.

The players care about having their trade/movement clauses respected and its such an obscure scenario I don't think the owners are going to care much (negotiating power aside), so it's a simple enough adjustment likely to be in the CBA that teams on NTC lists can't claim players on waivers.

 

[A1LeafNation]

I have a feeling the PA will get this loophole closed next CBA.

You mean like a NMC? Which Trouba doesn't have?

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Were they bothered when he circumvented his NTC in the summer and sabotaged the team? f*** the players.

 

[SladeWilson23]

The NBA has trade kickers. It's essentially where players who have this clause get an increase in salary if they get traded. Would that work in the NHL?

 

[ClydeLee]

Yea I think a lot of the early responses are ignoring what’s being discussed. It’s not just “poor Jacob”, it’s “should we change how a NTC and waivers work in the next CBA?”

Because it's not worthwhile changing a non issue. Its a 1 time and always likely rare occurnace only happening because Trouba had such bad value. The Rangers were fine threatening to let him go for nothing in return. That's not a loophole or issue of the ntc.

 

[LPHabsFan]

I see people calling for changes to the CBA but what changes would there actually be? There already is a mechanism to prevent being waived by virtue of an NMC. Are you suggesting simply removing NTC's and only giving NMS's? I would think that would drastically drop the number of players who would get protection and therefore not be something the PA would want.

As for Trouba himself. He can be pissed, and I certainly get it. Both sides do their best to circumvent things as much as possible to benefit either the players or themselves.

At the end of the day, even though he didn't want to go to Anaheim by virtue of them being on his NTC list, he still got to control the situation somewhat by choosing Anaheim over other cities that we know were interested in acquiring his services.

 

[dgibb10]

Just need to get there agents to push for full NMCs. Desperate GMs will agree to them over shiny new toys.

You don't even need a full NMC.

You are allowed to get a partial NTC along with an NMC that prevents you from being sent down.

Dougie Hamilton has one on his contract when his full NMC expires this offseason. He still can't be sent down.

Ondrej Palat has one on his contract. He can be traded to some teams, but can't be sent down.

Other players with this in their contracts include:

Coyle, M Backlund, Landeskog, Monahan, E Kane, Draisaitl, Nurse, Reinhart, Eriksson Ek, gallagher, Marchessault, Skjei, Letang, JT Miller, Ovi.

(NOTE, DID NOT LOOK AT GOALIES, AND PUCKPEDIA DOESN'T SHOW PAST 27-28 for clauses so guys who have NMCs that turn to M-NTCs after that year may also still have NMCs)

 

[SnowblindNYR]

If you want to go to teams like Vegas or NY, make sure you get a NMC. They treat their players like commodities because they know they can just sign whoever else they want.

Players ARE commodities. Drury's job is to build the best team he can and not bend over bacvkwards for a player's wife.

 

[dgibb10]

The NBA has trade kickers. It's essentially where players who have this clause get an increase in salary if they get traded. Would that work in the NHL?

The NHL likes to keep their cap and contracts as simple as possible.

it's why cap hit=AAV.

 

[Barrie22]

Because it's not worthwhile changing a non issue. Its a 1 time and always likely rare occurnace only happening because Trouba had such bad value. The Rangers were fine threatening to let him go for nothing in return. That's not a loophole or issue of the ntc.

Not a 1 time thing, tampa did the same thing to dan boyle back in 2008.

 

[The Hockey Tonk Man]

So,
I guess a NMC would be much better to have than a NTC? Can’t be traded with a NMC either?

 

[UnSandvich]

I dont really think either side is wrong here. Probably just going to lead to more NMCs in the long-run, and increased fan whining about said NMCs

 

[Section337]

Won't change a thing about NYC being a prime destination.

Yep, I generally understand why the scenario might worry lots of players. But I suspect they will stand by there convictions and continue to sign with teams like the Rangers while trying to stop the less desirable teams from using this technique.

 

[Mattb124]

You don’t have to care about someone’s problems as long as they’re more successful than you has got to be one of the weirdest internet phenomenon.

A player with a NTC was pretty much just forced to be traded to a team that was on his NTC by the sounds of it. A key part of the contracts players negotiate just became practically null and void because of this loop hole. Players are obviously going to be up in arms over this, and it will probably be something players want addressed in a CBA.

174 players in the league have NTC currently, this will be a massive issue amongst the players.

He didn’t have to accept a trade to a team not on his list. He did because it was preferable to him as compared to the alternative. Neither alternative was a violation of his contract.

You do realize that part of “dealing with it” for the players is to use the collective bargaining process to change the way they work in the future, right? It’s why they have a union (and why unions can be good). It’s not about the way NTCs actually work under the current agreement, but how they’d like them to work under a future agreement.

This isn’t whining. This is identifying what they see as a problem in the way these things work now and saying “let’s see if we can fix it.”

You realize that “fixing it” would be the introduction of a no movement clause right? That already exists.

 

[joestevens29]

You don’t have to care about someone’s problems as long as they’re more successful than you has got to be one of the weirdest internet phenomenon.

A player with a NTC was pretty much just forced to be traded to a team that was on his NTC by the sounds of it. A key part of the contracts players negotiate just became practically null and void because of this loop hole. Players are obviously going to be up in arms over this, and it will probably be something players want addressed in a CBA.

174 players in the league have NTC currently, this will be a massive issue amongst the players.

Trouba had options and wasn’t forced into anything.

 

[MoneyManny]

You don’t have to care about someone’s problems as long as they’re more successful than you has got to be one of the weirdest internet phenomenon.

A player with a NTC was pretty much just forced to be traded to a team that was on his NTC by the sounds of it. A key part of the contracts players negotiate just became practically null and void because of this loop hole. Players are obviously going to be up in arms over this, and it will probably be something players want addressed in a CBA.

174 players in the league have NTC currently, this will be a massive issue amongst the players.

Because it's not a real problem and 99.9% of us would straight up WALK to Anaheim if it meant 3 lifetimes of financial stability for our entire families.

Your comment is almost as tone-deaf as Marie Antoinette. Let them eat pucks.

 

[bland]

Who cares? It's over, accept it. This is a guy with a lot of chatter around him being heavily scrutinized, makes sense that even his departure would be noisy.

 

[Tawnos]

He didn’t have to accept a trade to a team not on his list. He did because it was preferable to him as compared to the alternative. Neither alternative was a violation of his contract.


You realize that “fixing it” would be the introduction of a no movement clause right? That already exists.

That doesn’t address this problem. At all.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Maybe if it wasn't Trouba I would care more but the guy is a dirty, head-shotting, whiny, punk. I still don't like him after that Spittin' Chiclets ordeal and I'm not at all surprised someone like him would whine about this.

If he negotiated terms in his contract then that's that. There's no workaround. If anything he gets even less sympathy because he cried his way out of Winnipeg and then publicly "refused to report" to another team if traded over the summer.

Be worth your contract and this doesn't happen you duster