OTF Classic

The great Arbitration Scoreboard now reads 18 settlements, 1 ruling, and 11 players with hearings yet to occur, after Derek Roy hit the jackpot in a new six-year, $24 million deal with the Buffalo Sabres. Is it just me, or does that sound like a lot of dough? I guess with Briere and Drury gone, Roy becomes that much more critical to the Buffalo attack. This contract would certainly seem to indicate that he'll be adding to the 18:27 he averaged on the ice last season, most likely picking up some additional power play duty - whether his 5'9" 188# frame can handle that workload will be a critical question come playoff time. It looks like there will be slim pickings for any GM's hoping to scoop up players whose original team walks away from an arbitration award, as was the case with J.P. Dumont and Vitali Vishnevski last summer. Yeesh, if it wasn't for Krazy Kevin Lowe up in Edmonton, we wouldn't have much to talk about at all this summer!

This has got to be the most disappointing arbitration season in recent memory. Out of 30 players who were headed to arbitration , 16 have already reached settlements with their clubs prior to the session, including some accomplished young players like Ray Emery and Lee Stempniak. Only Brooks Laich has actually gone through with his hearing so far, but nobody's going to get excited over a depth center snagging $725,000. So what's going on here? Is it that teams are fearful of what the awards might be and offer settlements to avoid getting burned, or are players looking around and not finding "comparables" inspiring enough to go after the big bucks? Or is it that both sides don't want to hurt each other's feelings, especially when the team has every intention of holding on to the player? Perhaps Mike Cammalleri will still go through with the process and land the kind of contract that makes his team think twice, but according to NHLNumbers.com , the Kings ha...