The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Wayne Simmonds to a two-year, $900k AAV contract a couple weeks ago. In the contract there was a reported No-Trade Clause, but the details weren’t released until the hockey information powerhouse CapFriendly got the news.

In addition to making league minimum in salary next season, Simmonds will have a full no-trade clause for the 2021-22 season, and then a 10-team no-trade list in the following year. This is no different to his $1.5M AAV contract last season, which included a full no-trade clause.

Before going any further, it should be stated that this does not mean Simmonds must be protected in the Expansion Draft, only No-Move Clauses are automatically protected unless the player gives their consent. NMCs are a protection that means a player can’t be put on waivers without their consent and is stronger than NTCs.

Simmonds has said outright that he wants to raise his daughter in Toronto and doesn’t want to move around mid-season, just like his penciled-in fourth line centreman Jason Spezza. This protection gives him that in the unlikely chance the Leafs decide to trade a fourth liner making negligible money (and IMO, he was making negligible money last year too, but overpays at the top made people feel the need to grasp at straws at the bottom).

The second year gives Simmonds options to move to a different team, presumably in case he wants to go win a Cup. Which, by the way, I hope to Gord the Leafs have made some progress in that regard.

Circling back to the Expansion Draft, it’s all but certain Simmonds is going to be one of the forwards required to be exposed (two if the team goes 7/3/1, one is they go 8/1). Despite being exposed, the NTC should act somewhat like a deterrent to the Kraken, who will probably be able to get players with more flexible contracts who will be more willing to move to Seattle instead.

The idea that Seattle will take a player with less value to force the losing team to stay stuck with bigger contracts. The Leafs likely won’t have this issue, but the Lightning definitely do, as they want one of their middle-class contracts lifted away for free by Seattle after they couldn’t give them away last Fall.

This all seems like a bit of overkill from Dubas, but he wouldn’t be doing his job if he wasn’t preparing for unlikely outcomes when he has the ability to protect against them. Plus, it gives Simmonds some job security he clearly wants as a new dad.

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