NHL Insider says the Tampa Bay Lightning were forcing McDonagh to waive his no-trade-clause

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Ryan
July 5, 2022 (12:16)

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After spending 7.5 years as a member of the New York Rangers, McDonagh was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning along with JT Miller for Vladislav Namestnikov, Brett Howden, Libor Hajek, round 1 pick in the 2018 draft (Nils Lundkvist) and conditional round 2 pick in the 2019 draft (Karl Henriksson).

McDonagh was a driving force for the Lightning en-route to winning back-to-back Stanley Cups and losing in 6 games to the Colorado Avalanche, almost winning 3 straight.

Unfortuantely for the Lightning and McDonagh, the salary cap forced him out of Tampa Bay. When the Bolts traded him to Nashville on Sunday, many wondered why McDonagh would accept the deal when he had a full no-trade-clause.

The Nashville Predators have some pretty good players, they made the playoffs this past season but didn't win a single game in their first round series. The Predators have some work to do this offseason, especially signing 40 goal scorer Filip Forsberg to a deal, which as we get closer to free agency, fans are getting more and more worried that he may walk. But again, this begs the question, why did McDonagh waive his NTC to go to this team?

Yesterday, Nick Kypreos provided some insight into how the situation went down, he took the time to reveal how ruthless the flat cap has made teams now.

So you mentioned the no trade. He had a no trade clause McDonagh. Yeah, kids, cups, no trade clause and they're just like bye. This salary cap is in this world of reality for these guys is that you give your heart and soul to Tampa Bay and they have to move you even with a no trade clause.

So, the way it was described to me was, we've got a couple of teams that are interested in you. And I, I don't think he was thrilled about going to Nashville at this point, probably, because of the things that we discussed, how really close are they, right? And he had some control with the no, no trade.

But the no trade isn't a no move and apparently that if he didn't agree to be traded, he was going to be waived and Tampa had a commitment from Columbus to claim him. And now it's you want to go to Columbus, or you want to go to Nashville.

Kypreos explains why & how McD accepted a trade to Nashville. #NHL Its shocking. Give this a listen. pic.twitter.com/AECwER8JtV� David 🔹 (@DaveyUpper) July 4, 2022