Gary Bettman used an appearance on Sportsnet 590 on Thursday to say the quiet part out loud about one of the defining storylines of the offseason. Brad Marchand was among those who disagreed.
The commissioner’s position is that no-trade and no-movement clauses have drifted well beyond what they were created for.
“This notion now, where you can select where you want to go to and you can demand a trade, that was never the original intention,” Bettman said, per ESPN. “If this becomes a problem – I don’t think one offseason a problem makes – but if it becomes a problem, it’s something we are going to have to discuss with the players’ association.”
His argument is that the clauses were negotiated to protect players who committed long term to a club, sometimes at a discount, from being moved without warning. Not to let them force their way out and pick the destination.
Marchand doesn’t see why it should work in only one direction.
“Lol, this goes both ways,” he wrote in an Instagram comment. “I guess it’s OK if a team signs you to a long-term deal and wants to trade you but not if you want out during that term. Broken system.”
Why is Gary Bettman unhappy about no-trade clauses?
The timing isn’t accidental. This summer produced an unusual run of players using their contractual protection to steer their own exits, with Brady Tkachuk using his no-movement clause to engineer a move from Ottawa to Florida, Dylan Larkin requesting a trade from Detroit while limiting the list of acceptable destinations, and Connor Hellebuyck going public with his request in Winnipeg before being suspended for failing to report to camp.
READ MORE: Brad Marchand’s best and worst team, in ten different categories
Marchand isn’t the only one pushing back. Agent Allan Walsh responded by arguing that these clauses are rights players negotiated for at the bargaining table, giving up other things to get them, and that Bettman was picking and choosing his history.
For his part, Marchand has seen the team side of the equation up close. Boston traded him at the 2025 deadline in the final year of his contract after extension talks stalled, ending a career that had begun there in 2009, and he signed with Florida that summer on the six-year deal he’s currently playing out.
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