Hopefully the Blackhawks Won’t Hand Out Any More No-Movement Clauses

The Chicago Blackhawks have four players on their roster with no-movement clauses heading into next season, as well as one player with a no-trade clause. Hopefully, moving forward, they won’t add any more players to the list.

The Chicago Blackhawks core group has stuck together since before Chicago won their first of three Stanley Cups with Toews and Kane. Having a core group stick together for as long as the Blackhawks have had Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Brent Seabrook, and Duncan Keith isn’t seen very often around the NHL anymore.

Players get traded or do not get re-signed, or eventually, someone gets bought out of their contract. Check out a complete list of all the players on no-movement clauses around the NHL; interesting enough, Chicago has one of the most extended lists of no-movement clause players.

When Stan Bowman was trying to get his core group signed, he had to throw in something special to keep the players around. If he had to use no-movement clauses, I understand that completely. However, he already did through in a large sum of money to a lot of these players.

Chicago gave Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Brent Seabrook substantial contracts with a long term at the time of the signing. In the case of Seabrook, you would think the contract was large enough not to need a no-movement clause attached.

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A lot of teams in the NHL do have to overpay or hand out a no movement clause in the hopes of keeping star players around. It is frustrating that Chicago had to do both in order to keep their team intact.

Handing out too many NMC or NTC can hurt the future of a franchise. All of a sudden the team is stuck not being able to change directions or rebuild thanks to a few players holding too much power in their own hands.

While I do want the Blackhawks to not hand out any more No Movement Clauses or No Trade Clauses for a while, I do want to note that this current core did earn those clauses in there contracts, and they deserve the right to decide what their future would look like and if they are going to be traded.

Maybe this was a stipulation that kept Chicago and goalie Corey Crawford from reaching a contract extension earlier this offseason. Crawford does have a no trade clause this coming season and a partial no trade clause next season with the Devils.

When do you think the Blackhawks will hand out another no movement clause? To me the best bet would be either Kirby Dach or Adam Boqvist in a few seasons. Those two players should be with the Blackhawks for a long time and a NMC helps make that possible.