Connect with us

Sports

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

Published

on

Red Light newsletter 🏒 | This is The Athletic’s hockey newsletter. Sign up here to receive Red Light directly in your inbox.

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.


📫 Love Red Light? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.

>

Continue Reading

Sports

Charlton 2 – 1 Derby

Published

on

Tyreece Campbell’s impressive start to the new season continued as his 80th-minute goal earned Charlton a 2-1 victory over Derby at The Valley.

It capped off a week to forget for the Rams after Saudi government official Turki Alalshikh’s takeover collapsed on Monday.

Sammie Szmodics, who had also netted in the EFL Cup loss to Lincoln, had put Derby into a lead at the halfway point.

But Lloyd Jones, who signed a new two-year contract on Friday, headed the Addicks level before Campbell produced an excellent finish to seal maximum points for Nathan Jones’ side.

Charlton had started in positive fashion with Billy Koumetio heading wide from an early Sonny Carey corner.

Lloyd Jones celebrates scoring for Charlton
Image:
Lloyd Jones celebrates scoring for Charlton

Karlan Grant, making his 100th appearance for the Addicks having rejoined in the summer, shot straight at Jacob Widell Zetterstrom before teeing up a chance for Carey but the attacking midfielder produced a horrible miskick in the 16th minute.

Derby enjoyed a spell of possession before they went ahead.

There had been a warning when Szmodics got on the end of Joe Ward’s low cross but his first-time finish was saved by Charlton keeper Will Mannion. But moments later he made no mistake from inside the penalty area after being picked out by Morris.

Charlton finished the first half asking a few more defensive questions and Taylor made a sliding block from a goal-bound shot by Danny McNamara. Zetterstrom also saved with his legs when Campbell attempted to squeeze the ball home at the near post.

Referee Ben Speedie ignored home appeals for a penalty when Carey went down from a challenge by Lewis Travis.

Szmodics, who looked to be troubled by a niggle in the warm-up, was forced off in the 54th minute. He was replaced by new signing Alex Mowatt.

Charlton levelled in the 61st minute through Jones. The centre-back, captaining the side in the absence of Greg Docherty, headed home Grant’s dinked cross from the left of the penalty area.

Mannion, who looked nervy dealing with crosses, went full stretch to turn Oscar Fraulo’s 20-yard effort around his left upright.

Campbell was the most dangerous outlet for the Addicks and produced a fine strike, on his weaker left foot, to put the south Londoners in front for the first time on the afternoon.

It was the 22-year-old’s second goal of the season, only one fewer than he managed in the whole of the previous campaign.

There were eight minutes of stoppage time added but Charlton fended off the late Derby pressure, with Morris only able to send Max Johnston’s cross straight at Mannion.

The managers

Charlton’s Nathan Jones:

“I’m really pleased – the result is everything and we’ve bedded in a lot of new signings. We had a captain’s goal where he gets over the back and scores a great header.

“With TC, he gets in those positions all the time and one-v-one he is a threat. We just want the outcomes from him.

“Last week he had a similar chance, went outside and hit the bar with a rasper. Then he cut inside and hit the corner (to score against Cheltenham in the EFL Cup).

“We are in really advanced negotiations with him. We’re hoping we can get that done.

“There are 45 more games. Last season we had a really good start – we had that momentum after coming up – and once we picked up a few injuries we didn’t have the squad to cope with that. This season we have got the squad to cope with it a little bit more.”

Derby’s John Eustace:

“I’m really disappointed to lose. I didn’t think there was much in the game.

“We limited Charlton to no chances, really, so the two goals we conceded were really sloppy from a defensive point of view. If we want to pick up points then we’ve got to be better than that.

“We didn’t stop the cross or defend the cross itself. It’s too easy for the lad to get the header on it. The second goal, we are in a really good position in their area and then we don’t get the defensive structure right behind the ball. It was a lack of communication. We have got to defend the shot better.

“That is the first time that team has played together. There are some tired legs in there. We’ve got Fozzy (Craig Forsyth) at centre-half who is 37 and doing terrific.

“The effort and attitude of the group was sensational today, as it always is.

“Sammie had a slight tweak in the warm-up, so it was a big ask for him to start. He’s such a top player at this level, he took his goal sensationally well, we’ve just got to hope we’re not losing him for much time.”

What the result means and next fixtures…

>

Continue Reading

Sports

Portsmouth 1 – 3 QPR

Published

on

Ilias Chair scored twice as QPR came from behind to beat Portsmouth 3-1 and claim their first win at Fratton Park in 26 years.

Pompey dominated the opening half an hour and took the lead through Terry Devlin’s long-range screamer.

But Rangers scored three times in 15 minutes before half-time to earn a first win away to Pompey since May 2000.

Portsmouth named £2.5million new-boy Abu Kamara in their starting 11 while QPR handed league debuts to goalkeeper Pierce Charles and Boy Kemper.

Adrian Segecic’s early corner was headed wide by Conor Shaughnessy before summer signing Luke Brooke-Smith unleashed a stinging shot from 25 yards straight into the arms of Pierce Charles.

Ilias Chair of Queens Park Rangers celebrates his second goal
Image:
Ilias Chair of Queens Park Rangers celebrates his second goal

Rangers’ first sight of goal came in the 12th minute when Pompey failed to properly clear a corner and Chair saw his goalbound effort blocked in front of the line by Ebou Adams.

Portsmouth took a deserved lead in the 15th minute when Northern Ireland international Devlin picked out the corner of Charles’ net with a stunning 30-yard curler.

Rangers suffered another setback when Kemper was forced off injured with only 20 minutes played.

Portsmouth were inches away from doubling their lead as Kamara was close to getting on the end of Zak Swanson’s teasing far post cross.

The home side were clearly enjoying themselves in front of a near 21,000 sellout crowd in the south coast sunshine.

The dangerous Segecic latched on to Colby Bishop’s clever flick-on before whipping in a cross that Brooke-Smith could not properly connect with.

Segecic then dragged a shot wide under pressure from Jake Clarke-Salter after being played through on goal by Kamara.

The visitors equalised against the run of play 12 minutes before half-time when Chair was left unmarked to toe-poke home from point-blank range from Harvey Vale’s cross.

The home fans were left dumbfounded seven minutes later as Koki Saito’s effort from just inside the penalty area took a double deflection off Devlin and Rocco Shein, totally wrong-footing goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid to make it 2-1.

Julien Stephan’s men extended their lead in first-half stoppage time when Chair claimed his second with another simple finish from Amadou Mbengue’s cross following more awful defending.

Pompey should have reduced the deficit 10 minutes into the second half when Charles passed the ball straight to Kamara but he shot tamely at the keeper with a half-open goal at his mercy.

Man of the match Chair was denied an opening day hat-trick by a smart save with the legs from Schmid at his near post.

Substitute Josh Murphy put a shot into the side netting and two efforts across the face of goal but the hosts never really looked like mounting a comeback.

The managers

Portsmouth’s John Mousinho:

“It was a really strange game. We were in complete control for the first 25 minutes and took a deserved lead.

“Mentally we must have taken our foot off the gas after that. After we scored we seemed to fall apart.

“Once we conceded that drained the energy out of us and we started making poor decisions and stopped dominating the game.

“We created some good chances in the second half but also gave away too many opportunities.

“We gave ourselves too much to do.”

QPR’s Julien Stephan:

“This is always a tough place to come and a very intense atmosphere.

“Portsmouth started very strongly in the first 15 or 20 minutes but it was not possible for them to keep the same tempo for the whole game.

“What I appreciate a lot in this moment is the calmness of the players and how they stuck to the plan.

“We scored a good first goal, and after that were efficient on the second and the third and the third one.

“We managed the first 25 or 30 minutes of the second half very well. My only regret in this period was that we could not score another one because we had some good opportunities to score.

“If we scored at that moment, we could kill the game.

“We have to improve on some things, but, in general, I want to be positive after this game.”

What the result means and next fixtures…

>

Continue Reading

Sports

Crouch guides Coppull home in Hungerford to complete big-race double | Racing News

Published

on

Coppull stepped up in distance to land a second Group Two of his career under an enterprising ride from Hector Crouch, who completed a big-race double in the Visit Malta Hungerford Stakes at Newbury.

The three-year-old Clive Cox-trained colt finished third in the July Cup last time out but a bold plan to move up to seven furlongs was landed in fine style for his jockey, who also completing a treble on the card.

Crouch delivered Coppull in eyecatching style, too, peeling away from the main group towards the far side two-and-a-half furlongs from home at the head of a three-strong breakaway, a path which proved quicker to the line.

It proved a masterstroke as the Bated Breath colt stayed on too strongly to land the £93,571 pot by one-and-a-quarter lengths at 15-2 from Prince Of India (14-1) with a further three-quarters of a length back to another of the breakaway trio, the 5-2 favourite Symbol Of Honour.

Cox, who was credited by Crouch with the decision to go far side, said victory over seven furlongs had given them options for the remainder of the season.

“He was unlucky not to be a place closer at least in the July Cup but he always gave me the impression he would stretch another furlong, even as a two-year-old where he ran so well in the Coventry,” he told ITV Racing.

“He’s got a lot of class and he reminds me an awful lot of Lethal Force who won this race back in 2012 and he went on to be champion sprinter the year after he won this.

“He’s still quick enough for six furlongs and while I’m not convinced he likes it really soft, with the dry summer we’ve had we’ve got choices now.

“If he comes back all right we could still run in the Haydock Sprint Cup and that would be with a bit of confidence after today. And we still have the Park Stakes [Group Two over seven furlongs at Doncaster] which obviously he would have a penalty in.”

Melbourne Cup next stop for Wine Dark Sea after Freer success

Wine Dark Sea made every yard of the running to land a gamble in the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury and set up a possible tilt at the Melbourne Cup.

Connections have recently sold a share in the four-year-old gelding to Australian Bloodstock and victory under Hector Crouch was enough to earn a place in the Flemington race.

Making all under Crouch, Wine Dark Sea, who was well backed from 13-2 into 7-2, never looked like being pegged back and stayed on well in the straight to pull clear of the staying-on Tabletalk to win by a length and a half.

William Haggas’ 2-1 favourite Dubai Honour was a neck further back in third.

Wine Dark Sea ridden by Hector Crouch wins the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury Racecourse
Image:
Wine Dark Sea ridden by Hector Crouch wins the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Geoffrey Freer Stakes at Newbury Racecourse

Winning trainer Harry Charlton confirmed the Melbourne spectacular was the next stop for the improving four-year-old with the horse set to go into quarantine on September 9.

“The intention today was to finish third which would help with the ballot qualification for the Melbourne Cup and he has done more than that,” said Charlton.

“The Aussies who I’m dealing with were saying finish third and they won’t change his handicap mark. It is very different how they do it.”

Wine Dark Sea ran out an impressive winner of handicaps at Ascot and Carlisle earlier in the season but could manage only fifth when well supported at Newmarket’s July meeting.

Charlton was inclined to put that disappointment down to the rigours of a stiff finish and long journey to the Cumbrian track.

“Although he won on the bridle at Carlisle he broke the track record carrying top weight so you can’t have an easy race, particularly travelling eight hours in a heatwave. The 10 days later we just saw a slightly flat horse.

“My brother [Tom] trains in Australia and has a Melbourne Cup runner as well. I have a team going down with the horse and you train out of the quarantine barn at Ballarat.”

>

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2017 Zox News Theme. Theme by MVP Themes, powered by WordPress.