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Given that Brandon Sutter has no leverage currently in his talks it is understandable why there has not been any progress on that front to this point. It makes more sense for the Penguins to take care of the Nick Spaling situation and figure out where that shakes out before playing hardball with Brandon Sutter.

Much like the Sutter situation there hasn't been much leaked about what is going on with Spaling. Yesterday Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette passed along this information:

Per agent Pat Morris, nothing new to report with RFA Nick Spaling and the Penguins. Arbitration hearing scheduled for July 31.

— Seth Rorabaugh (@emptynetters) July 28, 2014

Both parties (Spaling and the Penguins) will exchange briefs tomorrow in advance of the July 31 arbitration hearing.

— Seth Rorabaugh (@emptynetters) July 28, 2014

Seems like the status quo. So far there has not been a situation where team and player have had to depend on an arbitrator. Will Spaling be the first case that will make it in front of an arbitrator? Here is a well written article documenting all of the arbitration cases so far this season and what each player/team settled for before the hearing.

For those people who don't like the merits of advanced stats on Nick Spaling Here is a excellent breakdown of Spaling that uses video done by Jay32600

In other news the Penguins prospects will once again be participating in the annual Rookie Tournament in London, Ontario. I think this tournament is a much better evaluation tool than the recently concluded prospect camp. Here is the game schedule:



Adam Gretz churned out yet another quality piece on the Penguins. If you don't follow him on twitter, do so.

Today I wrote about James Neal, Patric Hornqvist and the Evgeni Malkin effect. http://t.co/L9tnDPjBM5 @SBNationNHL

— Adam Gretz (@AGretz) July 29, 2014

Not much else going on, that is all for now.

****

This dropped right after I submitted the blog today

Hearing that #Penguins making progress in talks with RFA Brandon Sutter.

— Shelly Anderson (@pgshelly) July 29, 2014

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter Follow @GunnerStaal

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