Report: Simon Gagne hasn’t waived his no-trade clause (yet, at least)

Contrary to earlier reports, it appears that Philadelphia Flyers winger Simon Gagne has not waived his no-trade clause. At least not yet, according to an interview with RDS. Broad Street Hockey had the news.

Despite the reputation RDS has of reporting information that can be less than true, this is coming straight from Gagne himself. It doesn’t get any more direct than that. At the same time, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Gagne won’t waive his no-trade. It just means he’s yet to do so, potentially because the Flyers haven’t come to him with a potential destination yet (although, that’s just speculation on my part).

It sounds like Gagne being moved is still a possibility, although having the power of a no-trade clause means that the skilled but injury prone forward could probably accept and reject deals on a case-by-case basis. You know what, though? That’s fine with me. If a team is willing to give a player such a bargaining chip, they should expect that person to use it to his advantage.

(The Dany Heatley situation was less acceptable because he demanded a trade and then figuratively held the Ottawa Senators hostage by refusing a deal to Edmonton. I wonder if Heatley’s “have his cake and eat it in sunny San Jose too” movement rubbed off on his former teammate Ilya Kovalchuk?)

So, basically, every day brings a new twist and turn in free agency and trades. We’ll always do our best to make sure you know if something is a rumor or at least is unofficial. When you see “report” in the headline, that’s an indication that something might be on the verge of happening.

In other words, if you’re taking things with a grain of salt ... your blood pressure might rise just a bit by now.