The Calgary Flames and Lance Bouma have filed their cases in advance of Wednesday's arbitration hearing.
Most times teams and their players settle ahead of scheduled hearings - it's usually best for both parties to avoid them - but that may not happen in this situation as there seems to be a sizeable gap in negotiations.
In #Flames arbitration case against Lance Bouma, club offers $1.5M, player requests $2.5M.
— Tim Wharnsby (@TimWharnsby) July 20, 2015That may not seem like much but when you're talking about depth players that's a pretty significant difference in dollars.
Bouma is looking to be paid somewhat handsomely after his 16-goal, 34-point campaign while the Flames probably look at him as a guy with 22 goals in 199 career games.
That advanced stats - an area Bouma doesn't fare too well in - are now able to be used in hearings will certainly not help his cause.
It will be interesting to see what an arbitrator decides (if the hearing is necessary) as some standard stats work in Bouma's favor while his underlying numbers suggest he's not worth his ask.
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