Earlier it was confirmed by Gary Lawless that the NHLPA and NHL have agreed to the rules of a potential Expansion Draft should the league indeed choose to expand. The biggest hurdle was what to do with players who have “No Movement Clauses” and “No Trade Clauses” in their contracts.

We now know the agreement states that the players with no movement clauses must be protected and players with no trade clauses do not necessarily have to be protected by their current team.

What’s the difference you ask? Well, let’s let the experts over at GeneralFanager.com.

A No-Movement Clause prohibits a team from moving a player by trade, loan or waivers, or assigning that player to the minors without the player’s consent. This keeps the player with the pro team unless permitted by the player to move the player by one of these means.

A No-Trade Clause is less restrictive, as it only places restrictions on movement by trade. A player with a No-Trade Clause cannot be traded by a team unless the player provides consent.

There are plenty of obvious names on the NMC list that would have been protected no matter what. Guys like Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby, and Ryan Getzlaf. But, there are also a number of players who, in our preliminary Mock Expansion Draft, were left unprotected. Their current team would be forced to protect them. These players are, Ryan Callahan (TB), Valtteri Filppula (TB), Marc Staal (NYR), Jason Pominville (MIN), Marcus Foligno (BUF), David Clarkson (CBJ), Scott Hartnell (CBJ), Fedor Tyutin (CBJ), Ryane Clowe (NJ), and Kevin Bieksa (ANA).

Columbus has three players, Tampa Bay two, and four of the ten players are defensemen which means those teams only have the option to protect two other defensemen. (If you need a reminder of the proposed rules, click here.) Chicago and Winnipeg each have three defensemen with NMC’s meaning they are stuck at that position, and Minnesota and Montreal each have two defensemen meaning they can only protect one more.

Also, we haven’t even gotten into goalies as our Mock Draft is going off the 2000 Expansion Draft Rules (don’t worry, it’s being updated later this week). Henrik Lundqvist (NYR), Pekka Rinne (NSH), Corey Crawford (CHI), Marc-Andre Fleury (PIT), and Cam Talbot (EDM) all must be protected which leaves their backups all available in the Expansion Draft. Obviously there could be plenty of player movement before the draft actually occurs, but no matter what, five teams will have their hands tied at the goalie position and will have no choice but to expose their second and third goalies.

There is a bit of confusion on exactly what will happen with players whose NMC turns into an NTC in 2017 as pointed out by our favorite Wyshynski, Greg Wyshynski.

Obviously this was a compromise. And it’s an interesting one for veteran players who see their no-move protection turn into no-trade protection as their deals go on.

Like, for example, New York Rangers defenseman and salary albatross Dan Girardi, who goes from NMC to NTC in 2017. The thought is that he would NOT be exposed, as the expansion draft would take place before July 1, 2017. -Greg Wyshynski

The more information I read about the proposed rules, the more giddy I get about the team we’ll see on the ice in Vegas in 2017-18. Defensively, they are going to be very good, and the goalies are going to be top notch. Certainly still a little concern about who will put the puck in the back of the net, but I’m not worried about that (yet).

**Huge props to the guys at GeneralFanager.com for the NMC/NTC data. See below for the links to all players with these clauses written in their contracts**

Players with No Movement Clauses

Players with No Trade Clauses