What does salary arbitration mean in hockey?

Question

And why would a player choose to go to arbitration rather than sign a contract?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Arbitration is based upon production for players.  Say a player had made 1 million and had a productive 20 goal year the following year.  If he wasnt an unrestricted free agent..he could take the team to arbitration to get maybe a 3-4 million dollar contract instead of 1.5 the team would offer.

Answer 2

Salary arbitration is when the player and team cannot agree on a certain salary or length. A team may also bring a player to arbitration in order to keep other teams from offering him an offer sheet as a restricted free agent. The Penguins did that this year with Marc-Andre Fleury. A player would choose to go to arbitration because he feels that the team is low balling him by not giving him enough money. The arbitrator than decides what the right amount should be based on previous performance. The deals in arbitration are usually only one year in length.