NHL to discuss 3 team trades, after team nearly ruins a deal by filing incorrectly

On this weeks edition of 32 Thoughts the Podcast, Insider Elliotte Friedman suggested that the National Hockey League may take a closer look into how three team trades are handled in the future. In the salary-cap era you're seeing many teams act as a third party by taking on salary from teams who are tight against the cap. As a result, the cap flexibility they provide offers them some type of compensation, usually draft picks.

There is going to a General Managers meeting coming up and some complaints and issues have arisen as to how three team trades have been handled. Some teams this season did not feel that things went their way. Some expressed concern that they thought they had a deal in place only to find out it did not work out on their behalf. A second issue was how the trade itself was submitted. Apparently, the league did not allow any type of modifications to the trade once the first team submitted it's part of the trade.


Clearly as three team trades will continue in the National Hockey League some changes and modifications will have to be made to make it fair for all teams. As you saw firsthand this year, completing a three team trade that involves retaining salary can get complicated and it is very detail oriented. All teams in the league want to do what's best for their own organization and to make sure everyone is playing by the same set of rules. This can be handled and discussed at the league meetings in Florida that take place next week.