March 22: After news broke last night that there was an issue with this trade, Darren Dreger of TSN tweets that it is still being reviewed by the NHL Central Registry and the NHLPA. The issue stems from a no-trade clause that was not disclosed by the Ottawa Senators when Dadonov was originally traded to Vegas, despite it being public knowledge at the time.
March 21: After much speculation throughout the day, the Evgenii Dadonov trade has finally gone through this evening reports TSN’s Chris Johnston. In addition to Dadonov, also heading to the Anaheim Ducks is a conditional second-round draft choice, which will be determined by the conditions of a draft pick previously traded to the Buffalo Sabres. In exchange, the Vegas Gold Knights acquire defenseman John Moore and the contract of forward Ryan Kesler.
This deal had been reported and all but confirmed earlier today before the NHL’s 3:00 pm EST trading deadline, however it had not been processed through NHL Central Registry and was not official until this evening. As Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman explains, the trade would have been accepted had it been submitted to Central Registry before the deadline, however that would have made Dadonov and Moore ineligible to play for the rest of the season. However, it appears the trade was submitted in time.
This trade was, for the most part, a salary cap deal. By sending Dadonov to Anaheim, Vegas clears his $5MM salary cap hit for this year and next year. However, by acquiring Moore, they absorb his $2.75MM cap hit, but that will lower to $1.625MM if they bury Moore in the AHL. In acquiring Kesler’s contract, Vegas can put him straight onto LTIR and have no net impact on their salary cap. All told, Vegas, will save $3.375MM in cap space, in exchange for a second-round draft pick and any production they will miss from Dadonov.
For Anaheim, the team has allowed Vegas to navigate a tricky cap situation, and was compensated for doing so with a second-round draft choice. The condition on the draft pick, as mentioned, concerns the Jack Eichel trade with Buffalo. If Vegas’ first-round draft choice in 2022 is in the top ten, then Vegas will send their 2024 second-round pick to Buffalo instead of the 2023 second-round draft pick originally reported in the Eichel deal. In other words, if Vegas’ first-round pick in 2022 is in the top 10, Anaheim receives their 2023 second-round draft choice; otherwise, they will receive Vegas’ 2024 second-round draft choice. Regardless, this move represents further precedent of the cost of shedding salary cap for a team that desperately needs to do so.
Not to be forgotten, the Ducks also acquire Dadonov, who has played in 62 games for Vegas this year, amassing 15 goals and 12 assists in the process, which replaces a good deal of the production Anaheim lost by trading Rickard Rakell away to the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier today. Dadonov also has an additional year under contract at $5MM for next year.
So ducks get a interesting top 6 candidate and a pick for what’s essentially dead cap space for them anyways. Why not
Now we know how Vegas gets cap compliant.
Hi John,
Here’s the ‘Conditional’ regarding this trade.
link to capfriendly.com
2024 2nd round pick (VGK) [Conditional]*
*Conditions: Anaheim receives Vegas’ 2nd round pick in either the 2023 or 2024 NHL Draft depending on the result of the condition in the Eichel trade.
Wow. So Vegas — having unloaded a player they turned out to badly need this season in Fleury, because they’re unable to avoid grabbing at every shiny expensive toy out there — hands over Dadonov’s solid production AND a second rounder for nothing, because they’re unable to avoid grabbing at every shiny expensive toy out there.
Cam Talbot making clear he wasn’t happy with the MAF trade.
Brees vs. Rivers-esque.
Apparently , the Ducks were on Dadonov’s no-trade list, but the Senators never filed the list with the NHL and also never informed Vegas of the list
freakin Dorian
Everyone’s mad at Vegas and Tampa for their LTIR exploits, but at least they can file the correct paperwork. Unlike Ottawa… twice
this is nuts. how does a team acquiring a player, AND having him for months not know about his no trade clause. Especially when general public on twitter knew.
The general public knew Dadonov had the option to have a NTC, and thus reasonably *assumed* he did. They’d have no way of knowing the clerical aspects of this stuff.
We, here, should all remind Bettman that *any* publicity is good publicity, especially when it makes the league look like it’s being run by rubes…
Vegas continues to get hit with bad kharma.