What does it mean when the player's rights are sold but the player isnt traded!?

Question

What does it mean when the player's rights are sold but the player isnt traded!?

Answer 1

they team has (had) the right to negotiate a new contract exclusively with the player before today basically (7-2-08) and sign them to a new contract before the deadline (once again that was 7-2-08)

Answer 2

it means that they are allowed to negotiate before July 1st (the opening of free agency).  Otherwise by stalking out a player before that its not allowed....

Answer 3

Sundin is an example.

Before July 1 he was still under contract to Toronto. No one could talk to him without the Leafs' permission before July 1.

As of July 1 Sundin was a free agent, so last week Toronto thought there was a chance he would walk away from the team and the Leafs would get nothing in return.

They "sold" (probably not the right word) or gave Montreal the rightst o talk to Sundin before July 1 to see if they could work out a deal ... and if they had, Toronto would have gotten some sort of compensation from the Habs, players, draft picks or both. They may have even received a low round draft pick from Montreal just to talk to Sundin.

Montreal was unsuccessful, Sundin became a free agent today, and Toronto and Montreal have nothing to show for it. But there's nothing to stop Sundin from signing again with Toronto or Montreal over the summer, but after the $20-million, two year offer he got from Vancouver, it's not likely he'll be back.