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;">Hayden: Why?

Me: I don’t know. Some of it is because they had to pick one player from each team and the one player they picked from St. Louis…

Hayden: Blues!

Me: Yes, the one player going from the Blues is their goalie, Manny Legace.

Hayden:  So, the St. Loolis Blues don’t have any players with lots of goals?

Me: Well, actually, they have a player named Brad Boyes who has more goals than everyone in the Western Conference except for Jarome Iginla.

Hayden: So, he’s in the All-Star Game?

Me: No, he’s not in the All-Star Game, either.

Hayden: Daddy. I don’t think I understand how they decide who plays in the All-Star Game.

Me: That’s okay, nobody does.

DON'T MOVE OR I'LL SHOOT
The recent contract extension signed by Alex Ovechkin was notable for what it did not include – a no-move clause.

Players can negotiate either a no-trade or a no-move clause in their contracts. However, no-trade or no-move clauses cannot take effect until the season in which the player would have been eligible to become an unrestricted free agent.

This is an important point because it means players such as Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Mike Richards can be traded up until that time (it’s not likely but you never know).

The difference between the two clauses is that while a player with a no-trade clause can be sent to the minors, a player with a no-move clause cannot.

Approximately two dozen NHL players have contracts with no-move clauses (including at least one other player on the Washington Capitals) so it was surprising Ovechkin did not insist on having one in his contract and settled instead for a partial no-trade clause.

There are approximately 90 NHL players with some form of no-trade/no-move clause, including ones like Ovechkin’s that limit the number of teams to which a player can be traded.

The ever-increasing amount of players negotiating these clauses is another reason why the number of trades has fallen so dramatically recently.

Rand Simon is an NHLPA certified agent. He has spent the past 14 years with Newport Sports Management Inc. He will be blogging for THN.com throughout the season. You can read his other entries HERE.