Players can negotiate either a no-trade or a no-move clause in their contracts. However, no-trade or no-move clauses cannot take effect until the season in which the player would have been eligible to become an unrestricted free agent.

This is an important point because it means players such as Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Mike Richards can be traded up until that time (it’s not likely but you never know).

— Rand Simon, The Hockey News

Simon's a certified agent with Newport Sports Management, and while infrequent, his blog items over at THN.com have had some good little tidbits in them. Simon notes there are about two dozen NHLers with no-trade or no-move clauses in their contracts.

While it's unlikely a player with a contract the size of the ones Ovechkin and Richards have will be moved, it's still interesting to note that that's an option — and it puts the ball back in the team's court at least a little bit.

Decision Day for Ovechkin, for example, won't come until he's 27 years old. After that point, he'll have "a partial no-trade clause" that will allow him to dictate which teams he can go to.

Before July 1, 2012, he can theoretically be had by anyone.
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