Bettman is right about trade demands and has no way to stop them

Gary Bettman is right that the no-trade clause stopped being a shield and turned into a steering wheel. He's also the guy whose league handed out every one of those clauses, and he isn't getting them back without paying for it at the bargaining table.

File under: Board room.

The commissioner said it out loud Thursday on Toronto radio. "This notion now, where you can select where you want to go to, and you can demand a trade, that was never the original intention," Bettman said. He added that the league will "keep an eye on" it and take it to the Players' Association if the trend holds.

That's on the record, the top of the scale. It's also not a proposal yet.

Look at the summer he's reacting to. Brady Tkachuk asked out of Ottawa with two years left on his deal and used his no-movement clause to steer himself to Florida. Dylan Larkin asked out of Detroit with five years left on an eight-year, $69.9 million contract, and his camp handed the Wings a short list.

Connor Hellebuyck asked out of Winnipeg, skipped camp and got suspended. Quinn Hughes went from Vancouver to Minnesota in December and starts the last year of his deal holding most of the cards.

Every one of them is using a right his agent bargained for. Allan Walsh, one of the league's best-known agents, called it "revisionist history" the same day.

He also asked about the other side of the ledger: the player with trade protection who's told to waive or go on waivers. He has a point. Teams have used waivers as a pry bar for years.

Nobody at the league office called that misuse.

What the numbers say: the teams holding these players aren't parking them while the fight plays out. Hughes logged 27:30 in Minnesota's opener, and Zach Werenski, who has full no-trade protection in Columbus, played 28:48 with two points, per NHL data.

Tkachuk is averaging just over 18 minutes through two games in Florida, with no points, nine hits and seven penalty minutes by our count. Leverage doesn't cost a guy his minutes. That's why players keep asking for it.

The read: this is an opening bid, not a rule change. Trimming the no-trade clause would be a big give from the players, and the union will want something real back.

I'd treat any talk of a mid-deal fix as smoke, not fire. The likelier change is quieter: GMs handing out fewer full no-trades and more modified lists, starting with the next big extension.

The Florida angle: the Panthers are the club that cashed in on the steering wheel. Zito landed Brady because Brady's list pointed at his brother. If the league tightens the rule, it'll be after Florida already got paid, which is a very Panthers way to win a rules fight.

Housekeeping: Larkin isn't moving this week either way. He's out for Detroit's first two games with an upper-body injury, and GMs don't pay full price for a player who can't dress.