With arbitration hearings on the horizon, many of the top stories from the past seven days have involved players settling for contracts before meeting with the arbitrator.
Calgary Settlements: The Flames handed out a pair of short-term contracts to avoid arbitration. Forward Sam Bennett received a two-year, $5.1MM deal while goaltender David Rittich inked a two-year, $5.5MM pact. Bennett, the number four pick in 2014, has yet to live up to his draft billing and has been more of a bottom-six forward at this point of his career. This contract will give him a chance to take another step forward but if he continues to play at the same level, it’s possible that he’ll be a trade candidate before long. Meanwhile, Rittich had a breakout campaign in 2018-19 and ultimately wound up basically splitting starts with Mike Smith last season. However, that was only his first full NHL campaign so he didn’t have a lot of leverage in talks. It’s worth noting that his deal will take him to UFA eligibility, something that isn’t the case for Bennett.
New Arena Deal For Flames: The contracts weren’t the only good news for the Flames as they also reached a tentative agreement with the city on a new arena to replace the Saddledome, one of the oldest arenas remaining in the NHL. This has been something that had been pursued for several years but each time it looked as if some progress was being made, things had fallen through but that isn’t the case here. The new facility is expected to cost roughly $550MM with the team and city sharing the cost evenly.
Seven For Sissons: Several years ago, Nashville surprised many by giving center Calle Jarnkrok a six-year, $12MM deal. The contract was largely unprecedented for a role player and not many have signed a deal like that since then. The Preds are certainly happy with how that deal turned out and they have gone that route again by signing winger Colton Sissons to a seven-year, $20MM contract. The 25-year-old is coming off of a career season with 15 goals and 15 assists although it’s the only time in his career that he has reached the double-digit mark in scoring so there is certainly some risk committing to that long of a contract. Nonetheless, Nashville believes he can be a useful middle-six player for years to come at a price tag that is under what a lot of third line players have been getting.
Clarkson To Toronto: Back in 2015, the Maple Leafs dealt David Clarkson to Columbus for Nathan Horton with the belief that adding the injured Horton would aid their cap flexibility. Four years later, they’ve reacquired him with the belief that adding the injured Clarkson will aid their cap flexibility. Toronto intends to be strategic with the order of their placements of players on LTIR in an effort to maximize their in-season cap space, something that could come in handy with RFA winger Mitch Marner’s situation. Meanwhile, the Golden Knights added goaltender Garret Sparks in the swap (while surrendering a fourth-round pick to Toronto). Sparks will battle Malcolm Subban for the number two role in Vegas while the trade also freed up the ability for them to re-sign defenseman Deryk Engelland to a one-year, bonus-laden deal with a base salary of $700K with an extra $800K in bonuses.
Bridge Deal For Buchnevich: The Rangers avoided salary arbitration with Pavel Buchnevich, signing the winger to a two-year, $6.5MM contract. The 24-year-old scored a career-best 21 goals last season and will look to build on that next season but with the addition of Artemi Panarin plus the presence of top prospects Kaapo Kakko and Vitali Kravtsov, he may be hard-pressed to reach the 15 minutes per game mark like he has the last two seasons. As Buchnevich was New York’s final arbitration filing, the team now has a 48-hour second buyout window that opens up on Monday. They’re several million over the Upper Limit already so they may be taking advantage of that in the near future.
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