The NHL announced Wednesday that it is canceling the trade that saw Yevgeny Dadonov move from the Vegas Golden Knights to the Anaheim Ducks because it violated his no-trade clause.
Ahead of Monday’s NHL trade deadline, the Vegas moved Dadonov, a 33-year-old right winger, to the Ducks along with a conditional second-round pick for defenseman John Moore and the contract of forward Ryan Kesler, who played his last NHL game in 2019. The Ducks will choose whether they get a second-round Vegas pick in 2023 or 2024.
By burying Moore’s salary in the AHL, Vegas was to receive $3.375 million in salary caps.
But within hours of the deal being announced, the Golden Knights said they “became aware of a problem with the deal. We have consulted with the league office.”
The case concerned Dadonov’s limited no-trade clause, which was included in a contract he signed in October 2020 with the Ottawa Senators. The Senators did not disclose this clause when Dadonov was traded to the Golden Knights in July 2021, the source said. Consequently, both Vegas and the NHL believed that he could legally be traded to the Ducks.
But Dadonov and his agent claimed that Anaheim was on his list of 10 teams not to be traded, and that this list was submitted to Ottawa for this season by the deadline specified in the contract. They went to the NHL Players Association, and on Monday the NHLPA challenged the legitimacy of the NHL deal.
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On Wednesday, the NHL announced that “a deal cannot be made because Dadonov’s contract includes a limited no-trade clause that has not been honored.”
Shortly after the announcement was made, Anaheim general manager Pat Verbeek issued a statement through the team.
“We respect and accept the NHL’s decision today regarding our trade with Vegas on Monday. Evgeny Dadonov is a player who, in our opinion, can help our team this year and beyond,” he said. “We will move forward and welcome John Moore into our organization as soon as he recovers and is ready to return.”
The denial of the trade is a blow to the Golden Knights, who have been trying to remove Dadonov’s $5 million contract from their salary cap in order to bring players like forward Mark Stone and defenseman Alec Martinez out of the reserves with long-term injuries. The Knights have lost seven of their last 10 games and are currently out of the Western Conference playoffs.
Vegas will need $9.1 million to activate Stone and $4.8 million for Martinez. The Knights have other injured players whose contracts could be moved to the long-term injured reserve in their place to make room for replacements, such as winger Max Pacioretti and striker Reilly Smith.
They are expected to try once again to trade with a team not on Dadonov’s roster and they will be ready to take his hit on the salary cap this season and in 2022-23, the final year of his contract. Teams can make trades after the NHL trade deadline, but Dadonov will not be able to play until the end of this season or the 2021/22 playoffs. He will still get his paycheck.
This season, Dadonov has 27 points in 62 games for the Knights, who acquired him in July 2021 for a 2022 third-round pick and defenseman Nick Holden.