(UPDATE 10:05 AM)- A little bit of an update to this post as Tim Wharnsby has tweeted out the figures heading into the Chiasson arbitration hearing- the team is proposing $1 mil a season (slightly more than the mandatory 5 % raise) while Chiasson’s Camp has countered with an ask of $2.45 mil. Chiasson has to know he’ll get nowhere near that in arbitration but kudos to him for trying, I guess.
With only two restricted free agents left to deal with, the Ottawa Senators are getting close to crossing the last couple items off of their off-season To Do list.
With August rapidly approaching, Alex Chiasson and Mike Hoffman are the last two players in need of contracts. A third/fourth line guy who wasn’t really able to establish himself during his first season in Ottawa and a top six winger coming off a breakout year in which he led the team in goals. Two very different contract negotiations that will each come to some sort of resolution in the next week and a bit.
Alex Chiasson has an arbitration hearing scheduled for this Thursday but I would be surprised if it makes it that far.
While his agent has talked about a significant gap between the two sides, it’s hard to imagine they can’t find some common ground over the next 48 hours. The Senators would be offering the 24 year old a slight raise on the $900,000 he made in the last three seasons and they are right to do so. An arbitrator would look at Chiasson’s numbers last season and likely arrive at the same conclusion. Really seems like it would be in the best interest of both sides to get something done before heading to the arbitrator’s table.
Mike Hoffman’s case is a lot more complicated.
First off, Hoffman has strong offensive numbers he can point to. Coming off a 27 goal, 48 point season in which he led the team in goal-scoring, Hoffman has earned a significant raise on the $750,000 he earned last season. His case is further strengthened when you look at his underlying numbers. And at 25 years of age, Hoffman recognizes that this is his chance to cash in and as we’ve seen in some of the conversation on Twitter, Hoffman wants to hit a home run on this contract.
Things are tricky from the organization’s perspective. As we’ve heard from Bryan Murray on a couple of occasions now the team is pretty close to their internal budget. With that in mind, it makes sense that they’d like to save money at the front end of the deal. If you look at the contracts both Zibanejad and Stone signed as RFAs, they both took a little less money next year and more on the back end. In a perfect world, the Senators would be able to do something similar with Hoffman.
The problem is Hoffman knows that if this goes to arbitration, he could end up awarded as much as $4 million. That would put the Sens in a tough spot financially.
How this one plays out over the next week and a bit is anyone’s guess.
Hoffman could take a little less next season and get a couple extra years of security over let’s say a three year deal. Sign that contract and avoid next Thursday’s arbitration hearing. But that would probably mean taking something like $2 mil in the first year. Hoffman and his agent could wait it out and go to arbitration. That would guarantee him something like $3.5-$4 mil next season. Then the pressure would be on the Senators to either find a way to make that dollar amount work within their budget, walk away from the decision, or maybe even explore the possibility of a sign and trade.
All options remain on the table with Hoffman’s arbitration date now just a little over a week away.
How do you see things playing out with the two remaining restricted free agents?
