Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Isles don’t plan to ask Ladd, Boychuk to waive no-move clauses

629991904

at the Barclays Center on December 15, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

Bruce Bennett

With the Vegas expansion draft looming, more and more teams are being asked if they’ll try to expose veteran players with big price tags, in order to protect a younger and cheaper asset.

That question was posed to Isles GM Garth Snow in regard to forward Andrew Ladd and defenseman Johnny Boychuk.

Snow shot it down.

“That’s not our thinking at this time,” he said, per Newsday.

The deadline for clubs to ask players to waive their no-movement clauses is 5 p.m. ET on Monday, June 12. And it’s easy to see why Snow’s being asked about Ladd and Boychuk, who both have NMCs and thereby require protection at the expansion draft.

Ladd is 31, and just wrapped the first of a seven-year, $38.5 million deal, one that carries a $5.5M cap hit through 2023. He also had an up-and-down campaign, scoring an impressive 23 goals but only finishing with 31 points (at 23-8, he was a legit Cy Young candidate).

Boychuk, meanwhile, turned 33 in January. Like Ladd, he has plenty of term left on his contract -- locked in through 2022 -- and carries a hefty $6 million cap hit.

It’s fair to assume Vegas GM George McPhee might balk at taking either guy on, should they become available. And should Snow do a 180 and ask either -- or both -- to waive, it could allow him to protect a guy that might otherwise be exposed, like Calvin de Haan or Ryan Pulock or Thomas Hickey.

As mentioned above, GMs across the league have been asked about players in similar situations. Ottawa’s Pierre Dorion didn’t rule out asking veteran blueliner Dion Phaneuf to waive his NMC.