Ottawa in the Middle of the Evgenii Dadonov Contract Mess?
The most controversial item from Monday’s trade deadline occurred when the incomparable former Senator Evgenii Dadonov was dealt to the Anaheim Ducks with a conditional second-round pick in exchange for Ryan Kesler’s contract and defenceman John Moore.
The deal came under scrutiny shortly thereafter when Dadonov and his representation revealed that Anaheim was actually one of the 10 teams that he was protected from being dealt to because of his limited no-movement clause.
After days of fact-finding and deliberation, the league ruled this afternoon that the trade must be voided because Dadonov's limited no-trade clause ``had not been complied with.''
I listened to Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on today’s ‘32 Thoughts Podcast’ before the league’s decision was rendered and they delved quite deeply into what was going on.
Friedman succinctly explained the significance of three key dates that were outlined in Dadonov’s contract.
“I’m going to give you the information that I understand from Dadonov’s contract, okay? He signed a three-year deal in Ottawa covering the 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. According to the contract, and nobody would let me see it, but I asked enough people for the language that I believe this is true. Dadonov cannot be traded to another NHL team without first allowing the player to provide the club with a written list – a no-trade list – of up to 10 teams that he cannot be dealt to. And, there’s also three dates that the no-trade list must be provided to the club: January 15, 2021 – which was, of course, the season started last year in January; or July 1, 2021; or July 1, 2022.
Some people were saying to me, ‘If you were a lawyer, you could argue that one either way.’ You could say, ‘Well, if you’re going to trade him, you’ve got to ask for a list’. Or, you could say, ‘He has to have the list in before those dates every year or (the contract) is voided.’ So, that that was one issue. That kind of became moot because, as it turns out, Dadonov and his agent submitted this year’s list on June 30th, 2021. So, it was due July 1st and it was in the day before. And, there is now a record, I’ve been told by several people, saying that yes, it was emailed to the Senators on June 30th. And yes, a receipt of confirmation… ‘We’ve got this,’ was returned. I know you’re going to ask me who wrote that. I don’t know yet. But, there is, I’ve been told, that the league and the players association are aware that an email was provided saying ‘We can confirm. We have received this.’”
The important thing here is that Senators sent a receipt of confirmation to Dadonov’s camp that his updated trade list was received on June 20, 2021.
The Senators moved Dadonov on July 28, 2021, about a month after Dadonov had submitted his list. Since Vegas was not on Dadonov’s 10-team no-trade list, there was nothing to prohibit the Senators from sending him there. And as Friedman noted on the podcast, one of the league’s most recent CBA changes — which occurred right before the 2020 playoff bubble — the league gave a new right to the players. Before that time, when a player waived their movement clause, that clause would cease to exist for their new team. Under the new change, “the league gave the right back to the players that if they got traded and they waived their clause, that clause would come back to the new team.”
In other words, once Dadonov was moved to Vegas, his limited movement clause was never voided because of this CBA change and the simple fact that he had updated the list of teams that he could not be moved to without permission.
So, if Dadonov’s list was updated, how did Anaheim’s inclusion on his list fall through the cracks?
Friedman had a few theories, but before that, he outlined the significance of Central Registry approving the deal from the outset.
“On July 28th when he was traded, somewhere during that conversation, the Golden Knights and the NHL gained the belief that Dadonov’s no-trade was no longer in effect. So, basically what happens… there is a trade call. The two teams are on it and Central Registry is on it. Central registry is sort of the clearing house. They make sure that every contract, every signing, every trade is done properly within league rules. As someone said to me on Tuesday as a joke and a compliment, they are anal retentive beyond belief. They are very thorough.”
And to drive this point home further, Friedman went on to wax poetic about Sean MacCleod, the vice president and managing director of the NHL’s Central Registry.
“He’s honest and people do not question this guy’s sense of fairness and his sense of honesty. And, I think that’s the thing that’s made a lot of people pause here. Why would Central Registry and the person who leads it – who’s very honest in most peoples’ eyes… Why would Central Registry believe that this trade could be approved? Something had to happen to convince him or them that Vegas could make this deal. This deal was approved. So, something happened in that Ottawa conversation with Vegas where they believed that they could do this.”
As to what could have happened, Friedman had a few working theories, but it all came back to believing that something must have happened on the trade call from Ottawa to Vegas that convinced the league and Vegas that Dadonov had lost his no-trade protection.
“Either it was somehow forgotten that he had submitted his updated list or what was submitted on the call because Central Registry would ask the question, ‘Hey, he’s got a no-trade, is there any problem with it here?’ Or, the previous no-trade for some reason, the 2020-21 list was submitted – which again, did not have Vegas but did have Anaheim. But, wouldn’t have had a problem with being traded to Vegas at that time. However, if the 2020-21 list was the one submitted, then everybody would have looked at it and said, ‘Dadonov is late with his list. He has lost the power to block any trade.’”
One player who got caught in a similar situation was St. Louis’ Patrik Berglund. His representatives failed to submit an updated version of his no-trade list to the Blues and eventually, he was moved to Buffalo as part of the Ryan O’Reilly trade.
Vegas obviously believed Dadonov’s situation to be similar to Berglund’s based on their dialogue and exchange of information with Ottawa.
“That’s the assumption I’m working under right now and I have reason to believe that that’s exactly what happened. I think the agent said, ‘It’s not voided. It was filed,’ and Vegas said, ‘Us, in conjunction with the NHL from that trade, believe that it was voided.’ So, Vegas believes it had the right to make this deal and remember, this deal was approved by the NHL.”
Earlier this week I joked on Twitter that this all could have been remedied had Vegas simply looked at CapFriendly and realized that Dadonov’s profile contained a limited no-movement clause. As Friedman noted, the information on these public sites isn’t always correct or current.
“Like, I’ve had a lot of people say to me, ‘All you’ve got to do is go on CapFriendly and you know what the clauses are.’ Well, it’s not entirely true. CapFriendly is an excellent resource and is right 99-percent of the time. They don’t have every clause correctly. I remember RJ Umberger saying ‘People go onto these sites and they’re wrong.’ Earlier this week, for example, the Tyler Myers one was wrong. So, CapFriendly is a great site. Excellent, but like everyone else, they’re human. They make mistakes. I think they’re going to have to do this now. They’re going to have to say that all lists go on Central Registry. But, I will say this is, some of the agents don’t like it.”
Some agents don’t like it because they prefer that these lists are exchanged at the team level. With fewer eyes on these lists, the less likely it is that these lists are ever leaked to the public domain where players could be openly criticized for putting (INSERT CITY HERE) on their list.
The core of the problem is that there needs to be a private and centralized system. Without one, it leaves too much for error because teams rely too heavily on their counterparts for the accurate exchange of information.
Until then, we’re left with this imperfect system and if I’m Vegas, I’m livid. There is certainly something to be said about doing your own due diligence, but when the organization and **adds emphasis** the league received false or outdated information that led them to believe that Dadonov’s no-movement clause protected him from being moved to Anaheim, I would be furious.
I certainly feel for Dadonov, who’s been thrust into what was probably a tumultuous last few days. He must be livid for how this has played out publicly. I’d be furious with Vegas for not doing their due diligence and consulting his agent, but I’d also be angry with the Senators for creating this confusion.
I would imagine that Dadonov will eventually be moved in a post-deadline deal, but in the interim, it has to take a psychological toll knowing that the team you are playing for just tried to dump your contract.
Other News and Notes
Sticking with ‘32 Thoughts’, in Elliotte Friedman’s latest column, he believes “Claude Giroux is doing his research on Ottawa.” As exciting as it is to think there is a chance that the local team can land such a coveted and well-regarded asset to their top-six mix, part of me is screaming, “Do not research this team, Claude! Just embrace it.”
Friedman sticks with Ottawa saying that Montreal and the Senators talked a lot about Colin White. “Canadiens GM Kent Hughes represented White, negotiating his current contract with the Senators. There were conversations, and, for a time, a few sources expected it to happen. We will see if it gets revisited.”