Can an NHL offer sheet include a no-trade clause? Summer minutiae for diehards

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Good morning to everyone except anyone who was involved in making “The Love Guru.” If you’re still thinking about hockey these days, you’re a true diehard, and we salute you.

(Sergei Belski / USA Today Sports)

New Kid on the Block

Oilers land another top rookie

It’s the middle of August and the NHL offseason has ground to a halt, but that doesn’t mean the best teams aren’t still out there adding top young talent. In this case, that team is The Athletic, and the talent is our new beat writer covering the Edmonton Oilers.

That would be Janson Duench, who made his debut earlier this week. My first instinct was to figure out a way to make Janson skate a lap by himself. My second was to invite him to further introduce himself to Red Light readers by answering some questions about the Oilers.

You’re getting settled into a new beat in a new city, but what’s your early sense of the mood of the Oilers fan base right now? Specifically, is there as much “we have to win” panic as the rest of the league seems to want to project onto them?

Duench: “There’s certainly an uneasy optimism about what the Oilers could be this season with a new coach and plenty of rest. Worries about goaltending remain, which is par for the course in Edmonton.

“I think many Oilers fans would tell you a certain degree of the noise surrounding the team is projected from Toronto Maple Leafs fans who want to see Connor McDavid in blue and white. Still, as much as fans ardently believe their captain is in Edmonton to stay, this spring’s first-round exit, combined with the rising age of the core, is enough to make anybody start to sweat. Each year that ticks by only makes the goal less attainable, regardless of McDavid’s contract situation.”

As you mention in your intro piece, so much of the focus this year will be on Mike Babcock, especially after his sideshow stint in Columbus. There are lots of people waiting for this to explode. But is it really as simple as saying that he’ll be fine as long as he wins?

“Many long-suffering Oilers fans will be happy with a win-at-all-costs bench boss. For others, no amount of success can augment what they already believe about Babcock.

“But as is so often the case in sports, winning is king. I think the fact that McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman were at the genesis of Babcock’s hiring makes this a very different scenario than Columbus. The top dogs are clearly on board with his vision and sold on his track record. The hiring of associate coach D.J. Smith is an important security blanket, perhaps one that was missing with the Blue Jackets.

“Wins will be crucial in October, and if Babcock gets the Oilers on track for another deep run, it’s not that difficult to imagine the storm around him settling down.”

Coaching aside, is this team actually any better than the one that made a first-round exit last year?

“Even without any roster changes, it’s possible this team would have been significantly better next season by virtue of enjoying a long summer. No team has more playoff baggage since 2022 than the Oilers (81 games). That’s practically an entire regular season. Throw in the addition of Stanley Cup-winning goalie Frederik Andersen to help stabilize the crease, and full seasons of Jason Dickinson and Connor Murphy, and I’m confident declaring this team has improved.

“Many fans celebrated the departure of longtime stalwart Darnell Nurse and his $9.25 million cap hit, but it bears watching to see if the left side is actually better off. That said, the pieces are in place: Jake Walman is due for a bounce-back season and free-agent signing Ryan Shea is coming off a breakout year in Pittsburgh.”

Trivia time

Janson is just the latest top prospect to head to Edmonton, where the Oilers have a long history of finding franchise players and landing No. 1 draft picks. But can you name all of the Oilers in franchise history who have won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie?

Answer at the bottom.

(Graphic via The Athletic)

Coast to Coast

This summer marks the end of Da Beauty League, the Minnesota institution that featured players from the NHL and elsewhere staying in shape and raising money for charity. Joe Smith talked to the beauties who made it all happen.

Great work by Max Bultman and Peter Baugh in running down the Hall-of-Fame status of all of today’s active stars from “they could retire today and make it” to “check back in a few years.” Their list has 15 sure-thing HOFers.

Have you had your say in Dom Luszczyszyn’s annual front-office confidence survey?

In the return of The Contrarian, I made the case for why Dylan Larkin isn’t a quitter, the puck-over-glass rule is great and the Habs are headed for salary-cap trouble.

Scott Wheeler has released his preseason top 32 ranking for next year’s draft. Get ready to know the name Landon DuPont.

I’ll be honest, I was just about to add all of these exercises into my next workout before Fluto Shinzawa talked me out of it.

Who wins an all-time roster battle of NHL stars based on how many Stanley Cup titles they won? Can Alex Ovechkin, Teemu Selanne and Ray Bourque of Team One Cup hold off Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane and Martin Brodeur on Team Three Cups? Let’s find out.

“The Athletic Hockey Show” tries to fix the Blackhawks and Senators this week, with special guests Mark Lazerus, Scott Powers, Julian McKenzie and me. Watch or listen here.

Hockey Canada announced continued suspensions for four of the five members of its 2018 World Juniors hockey team who were acquitted of sexual assault charges last year. Alex Formenton is immediately reinstated for Hockey Canada-sanctioned events. Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote remain suspended. Full story here.

(Corinne Votaw / Imagn Images)

No Dumb Questions

We believe that in hockey, as in life, there are no dumb questions. So, if you have something you’ve always wondered about the sport, ask away by emailing us at redlight@theathletic.com.

Can offer sheets have no-trade clauses?

When an offer-sheet contract is signed, can it contain provisions other than salary? For example, no-movement clauses or limited no-trade clauses? Or is an offer sheet limited to just salary and term and the way that’s paid each year?

It may be important because if a matched offer-sheet contract has only money and term, then the matching team is in a much better position to trade that contract at some point. For example, I suspect Connor Bedard’s Blackhawks contract has all sorts of no-movement or no-trade provisions for its five-year term. It was a contract directly with the team. However, does Leo Carlsson’s contract have any such provisions? – Steven P.

It’s an interesting question, in part because there’s an important detail hiding here that I think a lot of fans aren’t clear on.

First things first: Steven is right that Leo Carlsson’s contract does not include any no-trade protection. In theory, the Ducks can trade him at any time, aside from the first year. (When a team matches an offer sheet, it can’t trade the player for one year. That’s to prevent them from matching one team’s offer and then immediately finding a better deal with a third team.)

That said, could Carlsson’s offer sheet have included no-trade protection? Yes. It’s allowed. It just wasn’t part of this particular contract, presumably because Carlsson’s side figured that briefly becoming the league’s highest-paid player was enough of an ask.

But here’s the twist that Steven and others often miss: Bedard’s new extension barely contains any no-trade protection either. He has a no-move clause in the fifth year of his five-year deal, but that’s it. The Hawks are completely free to trade him anywhere they want until 2030.

Why? Because no player can have any trade protection in his contract until he would otherwise qualify for UFA status. That typically happens after a player’s seventh season. So, in the case of Carlsson and Bedard, both of whom debuted in 2023, they’re not eligible for no-trade (or no-movement) clauses until 2030-31. Even if their teams were willing to give them protection before then, the league wouldn’t allow it.

That’s an important detail to keep in mind the next time you hear fans bemoaning all the no-trade clauses in the league these days — especially fans of teams who are often on those lists. “We can’t trade for anyone!” Well, that’s not completely true. Anyone in the league can be traded anywhere, as long as they haven’t reached the UFA threshold yet. And that includes young stars like Leo Carlsson and Connor Bedard.

(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

Trivia Answer

If you came up empty on your list of Oilers who’ve won the Calder as NHL rookie of the year, congratulations: You got this week’s trivia question right.

Yes, despite having had stars such as Wayne Gretzky, Connor McDavid, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Leon Draisaitl, Grant Fuhr and Paul Coffey, not to mention four No. 1 draft picks in the 2010s, the Oilers have never had a player win the Calder.

Gretzky wasn’t eligible because of his WHA experience. McDavid missed time to injury as a rookie, which opened the door for 24-year-old Artemi Panarin to beat him out. And of the other players mentioned above, only Fuhr was even a finalist, finishing third in 1982.

Other near-misses include Jason Arnott (second to Martin Brodeur in 1994), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (second to Gabriel Landeskog in 2012) and Stuart Skinner (second to Matty Beniers three years ago). But they’ve never had a winner.

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