Hearing dates were released for the 26 players opting for arbitration. Within those 26 are four from the Rangers, as only Phil Di Guiseppe reached a contract agreement with the team. That deal was rumored Friday and announced today, as PDG will get 700K if he sticks with the parent club,
The NHL Players' Association has announced hearing dates for players who elected salary arbitration and have not yet signed with their teams.https://t.co/ztWqtkYVJL
— NHL.com (@NHLdotcom) October 13, 2020
Here are the dates for the four Rangers, in date not alpha order: Tony DeAngelo, D (Oct. 20), day 1 of hearing Alexandar Georgiev, G (Oct. 31) Ryan Strome, C (Nov. 5) Brendan Lemieux, LW (Nov. 6);
The majority of the time, the Rangers and players settle on an agreement, at times right before the hearing started. In addition, as a reminder, the last time the Rangers walked away from an award was Nik Zherdev. This year, as seen in the tweet below, the rules have changed slightly.
2 Changes in Arbitration this year:
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) October 10, 2020
-Cannot settle once hearing starts (previously could settle until decision)
-Just this year, if team walks away from award (must be $4.54M+), player may agree with team on team's arb offer w/in 4 days
Arbitration info: https://t.co/gJNmO9ezwe https://t.co/DxTCfbmEUv
What does this mean? First, no more going to a hearing and reaching an accord before the award is given. Once the hearing starts, an arbitration award will be announced, thereby putting more pressure on reaching a deal timely. Second, if a team wants to walk away from an award, the player could accept the team's offers within four days or the award announcement. In the past, if the team walked away, that was it. Now, there is some recourse for the player, if he wants to avail himself of that option.
For fun, let's do this. In the comments, post for each player what you think the player will ask for and what the team's figure will be. In addition, note if you think it will be a one- or two-year award request. Curious to see if we have a general consensus, especially for all other than Lemieux. A new blog will be posted when we have the team's and players' figures.