The NHL Player’s Association and the NHL announced those players who have opted for Salary Arbitration, and among them, center Morgan Geekie chose to opt in.
The hearings begin next week, and go until the first full week of August.
NHL Arbitration, for the record, works a lot like it does in the MLB: team and player can’t come to an agreement on what they think is right for both parties, both then submit their case for arbitration, they come together in a room at a certain time, and then a third party that sits there and takes in a mountain of evidence from both sides; usually stats, injury history, general performance, that sort of thing, and then that third party decides what the money and term of the contract should be, usually in one or two years worth of term if the player instigated it. From there, the team can either accept it and that will be the amount they are signed for, or the team can walk away, and the player can declare themselves an Unrestricted Free Agent. You can read more about it over here on Puckpedia.
Now, before you go working yourself up; recently in the NHL it has been very difficult for either side to be so far apart that they can’t come to terms. Just as recently as last year, every single player who was lined up for Salary Arbitration hearings came to an independent agreement with their team before the hearings even began.
So! We’ll keep our eyes peeled for Morgan potentially coming to terms with the Kraken beforehand, but until that happens we hope both sides can come to terms that are good for each other.
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