Rangers and Stepan Reach Accord on a Six-Year Contract

The Rangers and Derek Stepan avoid arbitration, reaching an agreement on a six-year deal worth $6.5 mil per year deal. Just like with Chris Kreider, the two sides met during the time that the two sides were slated to be in the hearing. The years and dollars and in line with what I hoped and slightly better, as I projected $6.875 million per year.

Here is the year salary breakdown and not surprising they front-loaded the deal a bit, as that might make it easier to deal him in future. 15-16: $8 million 16-17: $8 million 17-18: $7 million 18-19: $6 million 19-20: $5 million 20-21: $5 million

Stepan confirmed that he has a no-trade clause in 17-18 and 18-19 and then a list of 15 teams he can be traded to in 19-20 and 20-21. He also mentioned that he had no-move protection throughout. Rangers seem to throw out NTC and NMC like water, which is somewhat of a way to keep the salary down but makes it very difficult to move someone if things go sour or cap room is needed.

This is what I wrote in yesterday's blog on the topic:

Saturday, the Rangers and Derek Stepan exchanged arbitration figures. New York came in at $5.2 million while Stepan asked for $7.25 million. Neither figure came as a shock to me, as they were pretty much in line with what I expected, though maybe slightly higher than what I anticipated from each side. What's unclear and I have yet to see anywhere is if New York asked for a one- or two-year deal.

The Rangers have not had an arbitration hearing since Nikolai Zherdev in 2009 and have a history of getting deals done right before the hearing is supposed to start. Hopefully, that will be the case again. But with less than 15 hours to go until the hearing, the likelihood of that occurring is getting slimmer and slimmer.

The expectation is that arbitrator will give an award somewhere around the mid-point between the two sides or around $6.2 million. Personally, I like better how baseball handles it where there is a winner and loser, so both sides try and come in around where they realistically think they can win, rather than at ends of the spectrum expecting a middle figure to be awarded. But, at $6.2 million, Stepan gets a substantial raise, the Rangers still have some cap room and it allows for a longer-term deal to be signed. Just because the two sides go to arbitration doesn't mean a deal can't be made, which is what happened between Washington and Braden Holtby earlier this week.

The SNYRangers blog posted the following information yesterday:

The following centers have a cap hit similar to $5.2 million for this coming season:

Derick Brassard: $5 million Ryan Kesler: $5 million Valtteri Filppula: $5 million Mikhail Grabovski: $5 million Tomas Plekanec: $5 million Jeff Carter: $5.27 million John Tavares: $5.5 million Dave Bolland: $5.5 million Tyler Seguin: $5.75 million Travis Zajac: $5.75 million Brandon Dubinsky: $5.8 million

Tavares and Seguin are pretty grossly underpaid, especially Tavares given his production to date. But each received their deals out of the ELC, so they opted for the security of longer term deals rather than a short term contract and breaking the bank after it. Carter is more of a scorer than Stepan is, while Stepan is better as a set up man and defensively, but he too opted for a longer term deal. You could say Stepan equals Brassard, but Brassard opted for a longer deal last year rather than going to arb and getting rewarded this season. In addition, Brassard's second deal was for four years where he received a higher dollar amount per year than Stepan whose second deal was a bridge, squeeze variety from GM Glen Sather. The rest? Stepan clearly is better than them

Players with a cap hit around $6.2 million:

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins: $6 million Ryan O’Reilly: $6 million Matt Duchene: $6 million Logan Couture: $6 million Jordan Staal: $6 million Joe Pavelski: $6 million Nicklas Backstrom: $6.7 million Mikko Koivu: $6.75 million Joe Thornton: $6.75 million Anze Kopitar: $6.8 million Patrice Bergeron: $6.85 million

Stepan seems to fit well within that group. You could argue Backstrom is underpaid while Kopitar will exceed this salary on his next deal. ROR just well exceeded the $6 milion he was making, though as you will see below, that deal is inadmissible for the arb hearing.

The following players have a cap hit similar to $7.25 million for this coming season:

Paul Stastny: $7 million Henrik Sedin: $7 million David Krejci: $7.25 million Steven Stamkos: $7.5 million Jason Spezza $7.5 million Pavel Datsyuk: $7.5 million

Other than Stamkos, who will well exceed his current salary on his next deal, is there anyone on this list you think is better than Stepan? Datsyuk would be and probably still is but his injury history has curtailed his playing time and his effectiveness. As noted above, ROR's new deal puts him in this range and I prefer Stepan to him. So as seen by the above, you could make arguments at each salary point that seen to fit the player and the team. As such, a deal in the $7 million range would not be beyond the realm of possibility or what's right, nor would a lower figure be crazy as well.

Sean Hartnett posted the following in his column this week, laying out what is and more importantly not admissible in arbitration cases:

According to the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement, the following evidence is considered admissible: (A) The overall performance, including National Hockey League official statistics (both offensive and defensive), of the Player in the previous season or seasons; (B) The number of games played by the Player, his injuries or illnesses during the preceding seasons; (C) The length of service of the Player in the League and/or with the Club; (D) The overall contribution of the Player to the competitive success or failure of his Club in the preceding season; (E) Any special qualities of leadership or public appeal not inconsistent with the fulfillment of his responsibilities as a playing member of his team; (F) the overall performance in the previous season or seasons of any Player(s) who is alleged to be comparable to the party Player whose salary is in dispute; and (G) The compensation of any Player(s) who is alleged to be comparable to the party Player, provided, however, that in applying this or any of the above subparagraphs, the Salary Arbitrator shall not consider a Player(s) to be comparable to the party Player unless a party to the salary arbitration has contended that the Player(s) is comparable; nor shall the Salary Arbitrator consider the compensation or performance of a Player(s) unless a party to the salary arbitration has contended that the Player(s) is comparable

An interesting new wrinkle will be added to this summer’s arbitration cases. Both sides will have the power to use “fancy stats… to support their arguments because the NHL added an advanced statistics section to its website in February.

I posted earlier this month Stepan's advance stats compared to Brandon Saad and Ryan O'Reilly. He more than held his own in each and I am sure his agent will focus on his impact on linemates' goals while the team could focus on his so-so impact on their Corsi. The two sides both submitted figures like I think we all expected. They are close enough that a deal should be able to be done, especially since the Rangers may have offered a six-year deal in the range of $6.5-6.75 million per while Stepan is believed seeking at least seven years in the neighborhood of $7.25-7.5 million.

Find a way to get a long-term deal done that benefits both sides. (and yes, I will be happy when a deal is reached so we can all talk about other things).