Is there a limit on what conditions can be placed on draft picks?

[895]

I assume there have to be some. I doubt you could trade a draft pick conditional on the Yankees winning the World Series for example.

What if at the deadline the Washington Capitals wanted to acquire Daniel Alfredsson? If he retires after the season the Capitals would be stuck with his cap hit for the season after, something that would act as a deal breaker. What if they came up with a workaround with conditional draft picks?

To Ottawa:

Washington's 1st pick
Prospect

To Washington:

Daniel Alfredsson
Conditional 1st pick

The condition of the pick would be : If Daniel Alfredsson is not traded back to Ottawa for a 7th pick at the conclusion of the playoffs, then the pick is transferred to Washington.

This would provide Washington insurance against Alfredsson retiring and sticking them with the cap hit.

Would that work? This might set some sort of precedent though, redefining the concept of a 'rental' in the NHL.

Click to read more...

 

[kdb209]

I assume there have to be some. I doubt you could trade a draft pick conditional on the Yankees winning the World Series for example.

What if at the deadline the Washington Capitals wanted to acquire Daniel Alfredsson? If he retires after the season the Capitals would be stuck with his cap hit for the season after, something that would act as a deal breaker. What if they came up with a workaround with conditional draft picks?

To Ottawa:

Washington's 1st pick
Prospect

To Washington:

Daniel Alfredsson
Conditional 1st pick

The condition of the pick would be : If Daniel Alfredsson is not traded back to Ottawa for a 7th pick at the conclusion of the playoffs, then the pick is transferred to Washington.

This would provide Washington insurance against Alfredsson retiring and sticking them with the cap hit.

Would that work? This might set some sort of precedent though, redefining the concept of a 'rental' in the NHL.

Picks can be conditional on whether a player resigns or not (that's fairly common), but they likely cannot be conditional on the player being traded back to his original team - that would likely fall afoul of By-Law 9.4:

C & P from a "can a team loan a player to another NHL team" thread on the main board:

It is illegal to loan a player to another NHL team or make any player transaction dictating any future transactions concerning that player.

9.4 A Member Club shall not loan a player to another Member Club. All transfers between Member Clubs (including transfers resulting from draft claims or purchase persuant to Section 16A or the Expansion Draft Regulations or as an equalization payment for a free agent resulting from negotiation or arbitration under Section 9A) shall be absolute and shall not contain any provision:

(a) for the return or other disposition of the rights to the services of that player at any future time; or

(b) restricting in any way the transferability of that player at any future time.​

 

[GKJ]

Is that enforceable? A couple years ago the Ducks traded Sean O'Donnell for a conditional 3rd round pick, which was the Ducks would only get the pick if the Kings traded O'Donnell somewhere else.