Biggest Contemporary Arbitration Rejections
Teams in the National Hockey League (NHL) generally tend to want to avoid arbitration and when arbitration does occur, rejections are somewhat rare. In honour of the Chicago Blackhawks’ decision to walk away from goaltender Antti Niemi following a Stanley Cup victory, here are the biggest arbitration rejections in recent memory:
Antti Niemi, 2010:
Niemi was in goal for the Blackhawks en route to their first Stanley Cup victory in 49 years. The young Finnish netminder went 26-7-4 with a goals-against average of 2.25 and an overall save percentage of .912 during the regular season. He then continued by going 16-6 with a 2.63 GAA and .912 save percentage throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Niemi did all this on a salary of $800,000, and upon arbitration, he was awarded $2.75 million for the following season. Due to the Blackhawks’ salary cap woes, General Manager Stan Bowman had to allow Niemi to slip into restricted free agency by rejecting the arbitration offer. In a somewhat questionable move, the Blackhawks instead chose to sign veteran goalie Marty Turco, for only about a million less than Niemi’s deal would have been.
J.P. Dumont, 2006:
At the time of his arbitration, Dumont was a very proficient winger for the Buffalo Sabres. In his 2005-06 season, the then 28-year-old had 40 points on 20 goals and 20 assists. Dumont stepped up his performance even further in the playoffs as he put up a line of 7-7-14 in 18 games as the Sabres advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Due to all this, Dumont was awarded a contract of $2.9 million, which was simply too much for Buffalo to absorb into the cap at the time. Dumont went on to sign with the Nashville Predators, where he has been ever since. His production has not slowed down, and he had a career-high 29 goals in 2007-08.
Nikolai Zherdev, 2009:
Zherdev seemed like a sure-fire re-signing for the New York Rangers after he featured in all 82 games and tallied up an impressive 23 goals and 35 assists for the fairly offensively stagnant team. The arbitrator awarded Zherdev a reasonable $3.9 million sum for the 2009-10 season, and Rangers GM Glen Sather decided against accepting it.
Zherdev went back to his native Russia to spend a season in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), while the Rangers’ offensive woes continued. Last season, only Marian Gaborik scored more than 23 goals and the Rangers missed the playoffs. Zherdev will be returning to haunt the Rangers as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers after signing a one-year deal with the team in July.
Clarke MacArthur, 2010:
The 25-year-old centre started last season for the Buffalo Sabres before being traded to the Atlanta Thrashers 60 games into the season. He played a total of 81 games, during which he scored a cumulative 16 goals with 19 assists, his best season to date.
Based on his increasing production and age, MacArthur was given a $2.4 million ruling by the arbitrator. As the Thrashers had already acquired Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, and Ben Eager, MacArthur’s contract was deemed unnecessary and he was sent into unrestricted free agency, where he currently remains.
David Tanabe, 2006:
Tanabe was a first-round selection by the Carolina Hurricanes in 1999. After a few solid seasons as two-way defenseman for the Hurricanes, Tanabe went to the Phoenix Coyotes, and later the Boston Bruins.
In 54 games for the Bruins in 2005-06, Tanabe had an impressive 16 points on four goals and 12 assists. For that, the 6ft, 11in defender was awarded a $1.275 million salary. The Bruins felt that the salary was too steep for the sixteenth overall pick in the 1999 Draft and opted to walk away. Tanabe returned to the Hurricanes where he maintained his production until having to end his career after a severe concussion in 2007.
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