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Avs still hope to avoid arbitration with O'Reilly; hearing set July 23 |
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Rick Sadowski
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Now that the Avalanche has gotten through the NHL draft and free-agent period, the Ryan O'Reilly saga can take center stage.
Anybody think executive vice president Joe Sakic will be able to reach an agreement on a long-term contract with O'Reilly's agent, Pat Morris, before the matter goes to a third party arbitrator?
I tend to think not, but you never know.
The NHLPA announced Wednesday that O'Reilly's team-elected arbitration is scheduled for July 23.
This was Sakic's comment a week ago: "We're going to focus on trying to get Ryan signed. If we don't, we're going to arbitration so we know he's going to be here. We want Ryan to be here and to be here for a long time."
Assuming an arbitrator makes the decision, O'Reilly can't be paid less than 85 percent of his most recent salary of $6.5 million, which comes to $5.525 million, not exactly pauper's wages. He'll be offered one- and two-year contracts, the second of which would take him through the 2015-16 season, after which he would become an unrestricted free agent.
Accepting a one-year deal would just make everyone go through this whole process again, but it would make sense for the Avalanche to trade him at some point during this season (or next if it's a two-year deal) once the arbitrator makes his ruling because O'Reilly is certain to hit the market as an unrestricted free agent when he's eligible in two years.
The Avalanche simply can't allow a valuable player like O'Reilly to leave without getting any compensation in return, which is what happened when Paul Stastny signed a four-year, $28 million contract with St. Louis on July 1.
Based on history, it sure doesn't seem like the Avalanche and O'Reilly will ever be able to reach an agreement that would fit him into the team's salary "structure," which apparently will prevent any player from being paid more than Matt Duchene's $6 million cap hit for each of the next five seasons.
The Avalanche signed Jarome Iginla to a three-year contract with a cap hit of $5.3 million, and aside from Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Semyon Varlamov have lucrative extensions that kick in this season; Landeskog has a seven-year deal with a cap hit of $5.571 million and Varlamov a five-year contract with a $5.9 million average.
According to capgeek.com, the Avalanche is technically about $10 million under the league maximum of $69 million for the 2014-15 season with 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies under contract.
Colorado still has to sign restricted free agents O'Reilly, Tyson Barrie, Stefan Elliott and Joey Hishon. (This doesn't include non-roster players, and not every player currently under contract will necessarily be on the 23-man roster to open the season, so there is some leeway there.)
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The Avalanche has signed defenseman Maxim Noreau to a two-year, $1.25 million contract. Noreau, 27, had eight goals and 16 assists in 35 games last season for Ambri-Piota in the Swiss League.
Noreau, who is from Montreal, played the past three seasons for Ambri-Piota. A 6-foot, 194-pounder, Noreau played one game for Minnesota in 2009-10 and five with the Wild in 2010-11 without registering a point. He had 10 goals and 44 assists 76 games for Houston in the AHL in 2010-11.
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The Avalanche is holding a development/orientation camp this week for top prospects, including this year's first-round draft pick Conner Bleackley, third-round pick Kyle Wood and last year's second-round pick Chris Bigras.
The players aren't expected to do any skating. Rather, they'll learn about the NHL, how the Avalanche does things, nutrition and training.
The others: Troy Bourke, Will Butcher, Cody Corbett, Dennis Everberg, Mason Geertsen, Samuel Henley, Max Iafrate, Anton Lindholm, Nick Magyar, Spencer Martin, Julien Nantel, Maximilian Pajpach, Alexis Pepin, Reid Petryk, Matt Pufahl, Borna Rendulic, Michael Schumacher, Landon Smith, Ben Storm, Wilhelm Westlund and Roman Will.
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