Columbus Blue Jackets forward Scott Hartnell has reportedly agreed to waive his no move clause for a handful of teams, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Many rumors were floating around about Hartnell at the trade deadline, but nothing came to pass. However, Friedman says that “there is something going on now.” Hartnell has agreed to waive his NMC and “word is it’s a decent-sized list” of teams he’d be willing to be traded to.
One hang up for potential trade partners is going to be the length of Hartnell’s contract. The 34-year-old has three years left on his deal with a cap hit of $4.75 million. Decline becomes a serious concern when taking him on for another three years.
For the Blue Jackets, this move would not only free up cap space, but help them to be better positioned for a potential expansion draft in the summer of 2017. As was clarified Saturday, teams will be required to protect any played carrying a no move clause and they can only protect seven forwards in total.
Including Hartnell, Columbus has four forwards with no move clauses. That leaves them three spots to protect Brandon Saad, Cam Atkinson, Boone Jenner, Alexander Wennberg, Sonny Milano, Kerby Rychel and William Karlsson, among other players. They have the potential to lose a pretty good prospect in an expansion draft. Moving Hartnell out would allow them to pick another young player to protect.
