Finally, an arbitrator who did more than split the difference between a club’s submission and the player’s. Finally, an arbitrator who did more than color by numbers upon reaching his decision.
Michel Picher, the arbitrator who heard the case of the Predators vs. Shea Weber, did all that in awarding Nashville’s 25-year-old captain and Norris Trophy runner-up $7.5 million after the club came in at $4.75 million and the defenseman requested $8.5 million for 2010-11.
According to the transcript of the decision, obtained by Slap Shots, Picher dismissed the club’s attempt to use Phoenix’s Keith Yandle (“Keith Yandle simply does not present as a player who can be responsibly compared to Mr. Weber”) and Winnipeg’s Dustin Byfuglien (“While Mr. Byfuglien, like Mr. Yandle, is an excellent player, he has logged only one season in the NHL as a defenseman”) as comparables, and instead zeroed in on the only two comparables submitted by Weber — Chicago’s Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.
Furthermore, the arbitrator reached his decision based on the compensation due Keith and Seabrook this coming season, including signing bonuses, rather than on their respective cap hits over the course of their long-term contracts. This was not about a multi-year deal; this was about compensation for 2011-12.
Keith, who won the 2010 Norris Trophy, will earn $8 million this season on the second year of a 13-year contract under which he is scheduled to take in an average of $5.5 million per. Seabrook, Keith’s partner in Chicago and on the 2010 Canadian Olympic Team (which also included Weber), will earn $7 million this season on the first year of a five-year contract, under which he is due to receive $5.8 million per.
Would you trade Seabrook for Weber? Anybody would. Would you trade Keith for Weber? Almost anybody would.
“All that I can know is that in the coming season, Mr. Seabrook, who in my view has not achieved to the level of Shea Weber, will receive $7 million,” Picher wrote. “I find Mr. Weber’s position relative to Duncan Keith to be somewhat more problematic, [but] I am satisfied that Shea Weber should be placed slightly below Duncan Keith in the compensation market for the coming season.”
Hence, an elite defenseman is receiving a just reward of $7.5 million by virtue of a decision rendered by Picher that should become a model for any future arbitrator.
*
Ah, but would you trade Marc Staal
, Derek Stepan
or Artem Anisimov
and a No. 1 for Weber, who has two years to go before he can become an unrestricted free agent under the current CBA that expires before the start of 2012-13?
Brad Richards
will skate into camp as coach John Tortorella
‘s favorite son, everyone gets that, but there’s no need to memorialize the relationship by giving the Rangers’ captaincy to the 31-year-old center, who played the first 10 years of his career off Broadway.
The captaincy of this team of Bluebloods should go to a Blueblood. The captaincy should go to Ryan Callahan
, who has been an alternate captain the last two seasons, who served as de-facto captain much of last season in Chris Drury
‘s absence, and who is the personification of the Black-and-Blueshirt mentality that identified the 2010-11 Rangers.
A home-grown captain for a home-grown team.
Richards will lead by example. Richards will be leaned on by Tortorella. But Broadway Brad not only doesn’t need the captaincy, he hasn’t earned it here the way Callahan has. Beyond that, there’s no need to stamp the scarlet letter on Richards, whose relationship with the coach already is on a different plane than everybody else’s on the team.
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The concept of having all penalties served in their entirety that would thus allow clubs to score multiple goals on a single two-minute power play would be worthy of consideration except for the fact it would dramatically increase the referees’ influence on the outcome of games.
Given the fact officiating is by far the weakest component of the game, this automatically eliminates the proposal from consideration.
*
Yes, definitely. Unless the Devils definitively know Zach Parise
is bolting after the season, he’s the captain for Pete DeBoer
‘s team. No question.
*
Wonder what Brian Burke
thinks about the NFL dramatically adjusting its rules on the kickoff — one of football’s most exciting plays — to protect its players from grievous injuries?
‘Cause you know, Burkie, that football fans jump out of their seats, too, when a returner is laid out for the count.
Must be a bunch of wimps over there running that flag football league.
*
The ultimate referendum on the Islanders will be the one-man vote cast by John Tavares
when it comes to deciding whether to re-up long-term upon conclusion of his entry level contract this season.
This just in: Brian Cashman
thinks all the stuff about Wade Redden
was way overblown.
Enjoy the rest of the summer.