An NHL record sixty-seven players filed for arbitration last week. Most of the time these arbitration rulings work out in the players’ favor. Just think about it. If a player is serious about exercising his arbitration rights he must be reasonably certain that the arbitrator will award him significantly more than his team offered. Otherwise, he’d accept his qualifying offer rather than spend even more money on his agent.
The hearings get underway on August 1st and run for fifteen days. But many players will be using the threat of arbitration to up the ante with their respective clubs. So, before the start of next month, many of the players who filed for arbitration won’t actually end up arbitrating.
There are a handful of clubs up against the wall in this whole thing. Take the Vancouver Canucks for instance. Both their starting goalie and their top center have filed for arbitration and will probably be awarded substantially more money than the Canucks wanted to spend on them. Dan Cloutier was terribly inconsistent in the playoffs and ended up missing the bulk of the team’s first round series against Calgary with an injury.
Cloutier made $2.5 million (U.S.) last season. Given that he’s been Vancouver’s starter for three seasons, all seasons in which the Canucks made the playoffs, and that Cloutier has been fairly solid in the regular season, he should expect a raise in the neighborhood of $1 million. New ‘Nucks GM Dave Nonis says he is fully prepared to walk away from Cloutier if an arbitrator awards the goalie an amount that breaks the team’s budget.
Brendan Morrison made even less than Cloutier last year. But he may be even more valuable to the team. The Canucks are woefully short of offensive centers. If Nonis walks away from Morrison, signing a player of his caliber to play on a line with Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi will prove difficult. He’ll certainly not find one at a lower cost than Morrison. Henrik Sedin is not an option.
If both Cloutier and Morrison get big raises and the Canucks have to decide between the two, Nonis would be wise to keep Morrison and let Cloutier walk.
There’s added uncertainty because of the imminent CBA expiration. If a new labor agreement contains payroll limits of any kind, then the clubs could be stuck well over the limit because of agreeing to contract amounts set by arbitrators.
Take the Stanley Cup champs for instance. Tampa has five players headed for arbitration. Most notably Pavel Kubina, Ruslan Fedotenko, Fredrik Modin and Corey Stillman are all looking at big raises.
Ottawa has two big-time defensemen headed to negotiators as well. Zdeno Chara, a finalist for the Norris, and Chris Phillips, a former first round draft pick, are both in line for huge raises. In Ottawa’s case, having players file for arbitration limits management’s flexibility when it comes to free agents from other clubs. The Sens know they’ll be shelling out big bucks to Phillips and Chara. As a result, they can’t sign the type of free agent forwards they need until they have a better idea about their payroll.
And all this means that, at least financially, the teams are stuck until after August 15th. Think about the list of free agents available. On July 1st, a modern-era record number of players flooded the open market. In year’s past the most high-profile of those players would have been signed, sealed and delivered to new teams by now. Instead, there’s a mighty impressive list of players still available. And the list is likely to remain flush with talent well into mid-August.
We’re talking about players like Pavol Demitra, Mathieu Schneider, Glen Murray, Michael Nylander, Paul Kariya, Brenda Shanahan and Brett Hull. Cost certainty would certainly be a big plus for the NHL. But right now at least, uncertainty over cost certainty is putting the players, owners and fans in a holding pattern.
Another thing all this has lead to is some seriously bizarre stuff. Take the inaugural WHA draft for instance.
The WHA held its draft last Saturday at a Casino on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. The Quebec franchise, which intends to call itself the Nordiks (funny stuff), selected Philly forward Simon Gagne first overall. Halifax selected Travis Green second, which is really hilarious when you consider who went with the next few picks. Detroit went next taking Dany Heatley, who this week was indicted on a vehicular manslaughter charge. Michael Ryder and Joe Thornton went fourth and fifth. Then things reached a new low when a team to be named later, known only as the founder’s franchise, selected Todd Bertuzzi in the sixth position.
In later rounds the absurdity really boiled over when a handful of retired NHL’ers were selected. Doug Gilmour (founder’s franchise), Stephane Richer (Quebec) and Kirk Muller (founder’s franchise) all went.
This founder’s franchise really had a big draft. Between Todd Bertuzzi and Dougie Gilmour I think they need to select a name like the “Killers” or the “Maulers”. Of course, they’ll need a host city and an arena deal first. This whole thing is pretty ridiculous. Joe Thornton is now in a position to negotiate amongst three teams. I bet none of that helps him with Boston Bruins management. The best part is that none of these players have even given a hint that they would play in the WHA if it even gets off the ground. The WHA is rapidly turning into a big joke.
Danton Follow-up
Mike Danton plead guilty late last week to charges that he conspired to murder his agent by hiring a would-be hit man to do the killing. Danton’s trial had been scheduled for September. Danton was supposed to appear last Wednesday for his pre-trial hearing but the event was unexpectedly delayed. Now we know that defense attorneys were talking about a possible deal with federal prosecutors.
As part of the deal to plead guilty, Danton will be allowed to serve his prison time in his native Canada. He will be sentenced on October 22nd to seven to ten years in prison. As part of the sentence he will likely be barred from ever entering the United States again. His alleged accomplice, Katie Wolfmeyer, has pleaded innocent and her trial is expected to go forward sometime in mid-September.
Something about this whole deal doesn’t sit right. For a good two months now, David Frost has been telling anyone who would listen that he wasn’t Danton’s target and that when the trial got underway the whole truth would come out. Now Danton will take his, and Frost’s secrets, to a prison cell. Of all the shady things David Frost has been involved in over the years this one takes the cake. Once again, Frost survives unscathed while a young man’s life is ruined in his wake.
Danton had a decent defense strategy. He might have garnered some sympathy from his jury. In fact, David Frost might have been the one most damaged by Danton’s trial. Danton went into the federal courthouse in East St. Louis on Friday and fell on the sword for Frost.
Many in the media have kicked around the theory that Frost and Danton had a sexual relationship. Frost has threatened that Danton would sue any media outlet that reported that Danton was homosexual. Frost’s threats haven’t thwarted the speculation that a lover’s quarrel of some type precipitated the hiring of a hit man. Danton may have feared being exposed as gay.
But it’s important to note that in all the investigations and suspicion surrounding David Frost, there’s never been a shred of evidence that Frost had a sexual relationship with any of the young players he became close to over the years. In fact, Frost married a very young girl from an undisclosed, but reportedly well known, hockey family several years back and they have a child together.
No, the sexual relationship angle doesn’t hold much water. But there is no question that Danton was perhaps Frost’s most dedicated and loyal prodigy. Sexual or not, Frost had a lot of power over Danton. Something in their relationship dynamic went terribly wrong. If it’s true that Danton had tried previously to have Frost murdered, then you really have to wonder what exactly was going on.
Unfortunately, we may never know. The whole tale makes you think that it should be Frost, not Danton, serving seven to ten. Danton’s attorney told the court on Friday that his client just wanted to put the whole thing behind him. The worst for Danton is all in front of him. David Frost is the only person that gets to walk away.
Then there’s Katie Wolfmeyer, who likely will go to trial and tell her story to a jury. I for one hope that Wolfmeyer’s defense team drags David Frost into court and puts him on the stand. It may be the only way to finally expose David Frost as the manipulator many believe him to be. Of course, he may stick to the story he’s been telling all along.
More Bad News
Dany Heatley was indicted on six charges on Friday including vehicular homicide for the automobile accident that took the life of his friend and teammate Dan Snyder. Despite the support of Snyder’s family, the Fulton County Prosecutor’s office decided to go forward with the charges. Heatley’s attorney seemed most concerned about the homicide charge.
“We don’t want any sentence that would put him in jail, destroy his career, or have him deported from the United States,” said Ed Garland.
Meanwhile, Snyder’s parents released a statement, which said in part, “(o)ur feelings have never changed and we continue to support Dany and the entire Heatley family.”
Don Waddell, General Manager of the Atlanta Thrashers told the media that he expects Heatley to join the team when training camp opens late next month.
“Throughout the process, we felt that, and continue to feel that, the end result will show that this was truly an accident, and Dany will be ready to play," he said.
Even if Heatley is found guilty on several of the charges, the judge has wide discretion on the sentence. If things come to that, the support of the Snyder family will be a very important factor in Heatley’s favor. In all likelihood Heatley’s defense attorney will work out a deal with prosecutors where his client will avoid the homicide charge and the jail time that could come with it.
The Rumor Mill
I’ve seen reports that Jason Allison has been symptom free since mid-March and it certainly ready to start skating again. Allison missed all of last season and most of the season before with concussion-like symptoms following a whiplash injury. When Allison is healthy, he is one of the premier top-line caliber centers in the league. Don’t forget that Allison notched 95 points just a couple of years ago. And he’s huge, decent in the face off circle and brings a ton of leadership to his teams.
He’s also apparently willing to take a pay cut, well below what he made three years ago as the top-line center for the L.A. Kings. Still, he remains unsigned. The Kings are probably finished with Allison. They’ve paid an enormous amount of money to him over the last year and a half, a time period in which he didn’t lace up his skates for a single game. Signing Craig Conroy sealed Allison’s fate in L.A.
There should be more interest in him than presently exists. If he visits with other teams’ doctors and gets a clean bill of health he should get more interest.
Pavol Demitra is only 29 so he is one of the few UFA that could snag a long-term deal. But he has a history with injury and a reputation for playing soft in the playoffs. He’s fielded nothing more than a few phone calls and minor interest. If Glen Murray doesn’t sign in Boston I would expect the Bruins to show some interest in Demitra. Ottawa is another possibility. They originally drafted Demitra and may need to add scoring on the wing if they don’t re-sign Bondra. But a lot depends on Demitra’s asking price. If the Sens get popped by an arbitrator on Chara and/or Phillips, they won’t have much to spend.
Someone that hasn’t had much talk about him this summer is Eric Lindros. He’s certainly not returning to the Rangers. With a history of concussions he could have trouble landing a long-term, rich deal. Any contract he does sign could be laden with incentives and only a year in duration. Right now, the Toronto Maple Leafs is the only club that has reportedly been involved in talks with Big E. Leave it to the Leafs to talk with any and all big-name free agents, no matter how misguided their interest may be.
Possibly the best free agent goaltender on the market is Kevin Weekes. His agent claims he is mulling over offers from three different clubs. It’s anyone’s guess who those three teams are. I wouldn’t discount the possibility of Vancouver getting involved with Weekes pending the outcome of Cloutier’s arbitration. Weekes spent the early part of his career in Vancouver and has improved his play over the last two seasons. He did play a substantial role in leading the Canes to the Stanley Cup finals two years ago. The Canucks might show some interest just to pressure Cloutier ahead of his August 3rd hearing.
Eric Slusher resides in Spokane, WA and covers the NHL for SportsFiends.com through his weekly Wednesday Morning Skate column and other hockey related articles. Readers can contribute to the Wednesday Morning Skate or send comments to Eric by emailing him at eslusher@sportsfiends.com.
