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Arbitration

Sabres, Mammoth Elect Salary Arbitration With Bowen Byram, Jack McBain

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The Sabres and Mammoth will pursue team-elected salary arbitration with defenseman Bowen Byram and center Jack McBain, respectively, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

That brings the total number of players with potential arbitration hearings this summer to 13, along with the 11 players who elected arbitration before yesterday’s deadline. As with player-elected arbitration, team-elected arbitration removes the threat of an offer sheet. The Sabres and Byram – and the Mammoth and McBain – are now locked into short-term contracts with each other if they don’t come to an agreement before their hearing.

Unlike with player-elected arbitration, a team cannot walk away from an arbitration award if the AAV is above $4.85MM since they’re the ones who pursued the hearing. They’ll be at the mercy of whatever AAV the arbitrator awards if their negotiations reach a hearing, and the player can select whether it’ll be a one or two-year contract. Both Byram and McBain could walk themselves to unrestricted free agency in 2027 by opting for two-year deals; they would still be RFAs next summer if they opted for one-year commitments.

While the tea leaves still point toward a positive outcome between McBain and Utah, the Sabres and Byram are likely going to need to take advantage of the hearing. Byram opted not to elect arbitration yesterday as he looks to cash in following a career season, something Buffalo is reluctant to do with two other left-shot defenders, Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, already among their highest-paid players. He could have been offer-sheeted as late as today at 4:00 p.m. CT when team filings were due, but no other team decided to force the Sabres’ hand.

If things between the Sabres and Byram do need a hearing to settle, it won’t be prohibitive for Buffalo. The club still has $13.64MM in cap space remaining, per PuckPedia. That should be more than enough to handle new deals for Byram and fellow RFA defenseman Conor Timmins, who filed for player-elected arbitration.

In the meantime, Buffalo is still free to pursue a trade for Byram, although with the threat of a hearing looming, it’ll need to be a sign-and-trade unless they wait until after his arbitration award to do so.

If Byram and McBain opt for one-year deals, Buffalo and Utah cannot pursue team-elected arbitration with them again in 2026. Players can only receive one team-elected arbitration in their career, regardless of whether the situation reaches a hearing or not.

Eleven Players Elect Salary Arbitration

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Eleven players across the NHL have elected for salary arbitration, per the NHLPA.

Those names include:

The deadline for second club-elected arbitration is Sunday at 5 p.m., with arbitration hearings scheduled from July 20 to August 4. Two seasons ago, 23 players filed for arbitration, and last summer, that number dropped to 14 — a downward trend that continues this year.

As a reminder, not every player is expected to head to a hearing, as negotiations will continue leading into July 20. However, each player who elects for salary arbitration is now prohibited from negotiating with other teams or signing an offer sheet.

NHL Sets Offer Sheet Thresholds For 2025

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From the beginning of the ’Salary Cap Era’ in the 2005-06 NHL season, offer sheets have been a mildly used tool by General Managers in the league, with most teams simply matching any given offer sheet. Since September 12, 2006, when Ryan Kesler signed a one-year, $1.9MM offer sheet with the Philadelphia Flyers to June 30, 2019, there had only been eight offer sheets signed, with Dustin Penner’s being the only one to go unmatched.

Since July 1, 2019, when the Montreal Canadiens signed Sebastian Aho to a five-year, $42.27MM offer sheet (which was subsequently matched by the Carolina Hurricanes), there has seemingly been more appetite for them from General Managers. This culminated in the wildly successful offer sheets from the St. Louis Blues last offseason, when they poached defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway from the Edmonton Oilers for a second-round pick and a third-round pick in 2025.

Still, some risk remains when considering worthwhile offer sheets. Teams must determine if the required compensation is worth the player in question, and the NHL recently released those compensation figures via Sportsnet:

AAV Draft picks required
$1.54MM or less No compensation
$1.54MM to $2.34MM Third-round pick
$2.34MM to $4.68MM Second-round pick
$4.68MM to $7.02MM First and third-round picks
$7.02MM to $9.36MM First, second and third-round picks
$9.36MM to $11.7MM Two firsts, a second and third-round picks
Over $11.7MM Four first-round picks

The most given up in the ’Salary Cap Era’ was the 2008 first, second, and third round pick awarded to the Anaheim Ducks for Penner’s offer sheet by Edmonton. No team has ever reached into the sixth tier of compensation, and that’s unlikely to change this offseason. Teams must use their own draft compensation, meaning they’d have to re-acquire any of their old draft selections should they need them for an unmatched offer sheet, similarly to what St. Louis had to do with the Pittsburgh Penguins last summer.

Noah Cates Reportedly Leaning Toward Filing For Arbitration This Summer

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Arbitration decisions are still nearly two months away but one player may already be leaning toward going in that direction.  Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff reports that Flyers forward Noah Cates is not believed to be interested in signing a long-term deal and instead, prefers to simply file for arbitration and take a one-year award.

The 26-year-old has only one RFA-eligible season remaining so such a route would walk him right to UFA eligibility, certainly not an ideal situation for Philadelphia.  However, Cates has had some ups and downs in recent years which makes forecasting the right price tag for a long-term agreement a little trickier.

In 2022-23, Cates had a solid year, tallying 13 goals and 25 assists in his first full NHL campaign.  But with his limited track record, the two sides decided that a bridge agreement would make the most sense, settling on a two-year, $5.25MM deal that summer.  The deal carried a uniform $2.625MM salary, making that the qualifying offer Philadelphia will have to tender him next month.

Unfortunately, the first season didn’t go particularly well as he was limited to just six goals and a dozen helpers in 59 games while seeing his playing time drop by nearly four minutes a night.  Cates fared better this year, rebounding to 16 goals and 21 assists in 78 contests while logging nearly 16 minutes per game of ice time, gaining back a little more than half of his lost ice time the year before.

While that certainly helps his case heading into restricted free agency this summer, the inconsistency still makes it difficult to find a long-term price tag that both sides would likely be happy with.  Di Marco suggests that the team likely views him somewhere in the $3.5MM to $4MM range on a longer-term contract which isn’t that big of a jump from what he has made the last two years.

Given the bounce-back effort this year, Cates’ camp probably feels that they can reach at least the $3MM mark simply by going to a hearing so it’s understandable that a longer-term pact worth not much more than that might not be the most appealing.  If the Flyers are uncomfortable going higher than that long-term (which is also understandable given his inconsistency), opting for the hearing makes a lot of sense.

That approach may lead GM Daniel Briere to examine potential trade options for Cates.  If there’s a team out there willing to meet the higher asking price or even offer a medium-term deal more in his price range, Cates might have more trade value now when that contract could still be signed compared to possibly being an in-season rental player.  Given that Cates predominantly played down the middle this season, Briere should be able to generate some strong interest if he decides to go that route.  Otherwise, it appears we might be seeing Cates among the group to file for arbitration in early July.

2024 Salary Arbitration Tracker

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It has been a quieter year on the salary arbitration front across the NHL.  After 23 players filed last summer, just 14 did this time around.  As expected, most have settled so far with a few hearings still pending.  Here’s a rundown of who has settled and who still needs to sign.

Updated 7/30/24, 1:07 p.m.

Contracts Settled

D Jake Christiansen (Blue Jackets) – one year, $775K (two-way agreement)
F Connor Dewar (Maple Leafs) – one year, $1.18MM
F Jack Drury (Hurricanes) – two years, $3.45MM
D Ty Emberson (Sharks) – one year, $950K
G Jet Greaves (Blue Jackets) – two years, $1.625MM (two-way in 2024-25, one-way in 2025-26)
F Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (Sabres) – five years, $23.75MM
F Beck Malenstyn (Sabres) – two years, $2.7MM
D J.J. Moser (Lightning) – two years, $6.75MM
F Joe Veleno (Red Wings) – two years, $4.55MM
F Oliver Wahlstrom (Islanders) – one year, $1MM
F Kirill Marchenko (Blue Jackets) – three years, $11.55MM
F Martin Necas (Hurricanes) – two years, $13MM
D Ryan Lindgren (Rangers) – one year, $4.5MM

Contracts Awarded

D Spencer Stastney (Predators) – two years, $1.675MM (two-way in 2024-25, one-way in 2025-26)

Scheduled Hearings

none

A reminder of some of the arbitration rules for the upcoming potential hearings:

  • A player and team can settle on a deal at any point before the hearing starts.
  • Once the hearing has taken place, the arbitration decision must be issued by email within 48 hours.
  • Arbitration awards can only be one or two years in length. (Players who are in their final year of restricted free agency are only entitled to a one-year agreement from an arbitrator.)
  • The team decides on the awarded term as these were all player-elected filings.
  • The team can walk away from the arbitration decision if a contract with an average annual value of more than $4.74MM is awarded.

Worth noting is that teams who have someone file for arbitration will receive a second buyout window three days after their final contract is settled or awarded.  The window lasts for 48 hours and the only eligible players to be bought out in this timeframe are those who have an AAV of $4MM or more and were on that team’s reserve list at the trade deadline back in March.

Arbitrator Awards Predators’ Spencer Stastney Two-Year Deal

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Predators RFA defenseman Spencer Stastney has a contract for the next two seasons after his arbitration case reached a hearing Monday, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. It carries a cap hit in the $837.5K neighborhood and is a two-way deal in 2024-25 before converting to a one-way pact in 2025-26 at “$850K-ish.” The breakdown for this season is a $825K NHL salary and a $400K AHL salary.

Stastney, 24, is the first to have his arbitration case settled by a hearing this offseason. Out of the 14 players who initially filed for salary arbitration, only five are still awaiting contracts (Ryan Lindgren, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Kirill Marchenko, Martin Nečas, Oliver Wahlstrom).

A 2018 fifth-round pick of the Preds, Stastney worked his way up the depth chart last season after making his NHL debut in an eight-game stint in 2022-23. The Illinois native looked at home in a bottom-pairing role, posting four points (two goals, two assists) and a +9 rating in 20 appearances while averaging nearly 16 minutes per game. The 6’0″, 184-lb defender was rarely involved physically, registering just two hits, but he did control play well with a 51.9 CF% and 59.3 xGF% at even strength, per Hockey Reference.

Those advanced numbers, plus the trust of head coach Andrew Brunette to utilize him for three of Nashville’s six playoff games before exiting with injury, is likely why he filed for a one-year, one-way deal worth $950K. The Predators asked for a two-year, two-way deal with a league-minimum cap hit in the NHL and AHL salaries below the $200K line each season. The cap hit falls a bit closer to Nashville’s filing, but the overall guaranteed cash awarded to Stastney in this deal is much more in line with the player’s request.

Despite the two-way structure next season, there’s a strong chance Stastney is on Nashville’s opening night roster. They have less than $600K in cap space with a bare-minimum roster after their free agency spending spree, per PuckPedia, meaning they don’t have any flexibility to recall an extra skater from the AHL for last-minute absences. The Preds will likely move out one of their NHL-rostered depth defensemen, all of whom cost at least $2MM against the cap, for added flexibility. Stastney’s six-figure cap hit as a replacement would give Nashville the flexibility they need to effectively manage their roster in-season.

West Notes: Stastney, Sprong, Lorentz

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Predators RFA defenseman Spencer Stastney is indeed having his arbitration hearing today, Nick Kieser of the team’s radio network confirms. The NHLPA is deviating from past tradition this year by not releasing a calendar of hearing dates, but arbitration figures are always exchanged two days before the hearing. When Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported the filings on Saturday, it was clear Stastney’s hearing was slated for Monday.

The Preds are down to $595K in projected cap space with a bare-minimum roster of 12 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies, per PuckPedia. Even though Stastney’s cap hit will come in under $1MM after arbitration (the player filed at $950K), a league-minimum $775K deal would still put Nashville slightly over the cap for now.

Even without Stastney’s arbitration hearing, a cap-clearing move would likely be coming for the Preds this offseason for the sake of roster flexibility. One has to think a cap dump would come from the blue line, where none of Nashville’s six rostered defensemen cost less than $2MM against the cap. Dante Fabbro is the only pending UFA of the bunch, and his $2.5MM cap hit is fair value for his services. He’ll be a likely trade candidate, given his cap hit could be replaced by three league-minimum players – Stastney being one of them.

They’ll get exact clarity on Stastney’s cap hit next season within the next 48 hours.

Elsewhere out West:

  • In his latest for The Athletic, Thomas Drance took a deep dive into the Canucks’ signing of Daniel Sprong over the weekend. Among other points, Drance articulates that Sprong is likely viewed internally as a lower-cost replacement for Andrei Kuzmenko, who was dealt to the Flames in last season’s Elias Lindholm blockbuster. If so, it seems the Canucks will be more willing to utilize Sprong in top-six spot duty, likely on Elias Pettersson’s right flank, than his recent homes. His offensive success with the Kraken and Red Wings the past two seasons has come despite receiving solidly bottom-six minutes.
  • It’s bottom-of-the-barrel time for teams still looking to add depth from the UFA market. Thus, the next few weeks will be the time for cap-strapped teams who were rather quiet around July 1 to shine. The Avalanche are one of those squads, and if they’re looking to replenish some fourth-line depth, it’ll need to be a league-minimum pact. Colorado Hockey Now’s Evan Rawal names ex-Panther Steven Lorentz as a candidate who fits that bill. Lorentz, 28, had three points in 16 playoff games for the Cats in their run to the 2024 Stanley Cup and would provide competition for veteran Chris Wagner and youngster Jean-Luc Foudy for fourth-line center duties in Denver.

Predators, Spencer Stastney Exchange Arbitration Figures

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With the schedule for arbitration hearings not being made public this year, it’s generally unknown when hearings are going to be held.  However, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link), the Predators and defenseman Spencer Stastney have exchanged figures, meaning his hearing is slated for Monday.

Stastney’s request was a one-year deal worth $950K.  With the blueliner initiating the filing, it’s Nashville that gets to determine if it’s a one-year or a two-year award should it actually go through the process.  They opted for the latter, filing a two-way offer for both seasons, worth $775K and $125K in the minors for 2024-25 and $775K and $175K for 2025-26.

The 24-year-old is coming off his entry-level deal, one which saw him carry a $925K cap hit between his base salary and signing bonuses.  Nashville’s offer actually comes in below the qualifying offer they tendered late last month but those offers have since lapsed meaning that they can go as low as they want with an offer.

Last season, Stastney split the year between Nashville and AHL Milwaukee.  In the minors, he suited up in 44 games, notching five goals and 15 assists, improving on his rookie point total by seven.  He got into 20 regular season games with the Preds, picking up two goals and two helpers while logging just under 16 minutes a night.  Stastney also played in three games in their opening-round playoff loss to Vancouver.

The two sides now have just under 48 hours to come to an agreement.  If they can’t come to one and the hearing starts, it will go the distance and have a contract awarded by the arbitrator.  If a contract is awarded, Stastney will once again be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer.

Snapshots: Dillon, Swayman, Yager

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The New Jersey Devils were quick to bring in defenseman Brenden Dillon when free agency opened on July 1st, signing him to a three-year, $12MM contract. But that wasn’t the first time the Devils tried to acquire the physical defender, with Dillon sharing on Sportsnet’s The Hockey PDOcast that the Devils also wanted to acquire him at the Trade Deadline. He added that Winnipeg was hesitant to move any of their pending unrestricted free agents amid a strong season.

Dillon was a focal piece of the Jets’ success, once again returning to his stout role on the team’s second pairing and posting 20 points for the third year in a row. He found ways to make his presence felt every single game, leading Winnipeg with 241 hits in 77 games – 20 hits ahead of anyone else on the team – and ranking third with 111 blocked shots.

It’s clear to see why the Devils of all teams would be interested in Dillon’s services. New Jersey is entering next season with an incredibly skilled, but underdeveloped, blue-line – headlined by Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec. Both players are still rounding out their two-way game early in their careers and could stand to benefit from the physical punch that Dillon brings to the lineup. His veteran status is a nice perk as well, with Dillon appearing in 892 games across 13 seasons in the league.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The deadline for clubs to file for salary arbitration with their arbitration-eligible restricted free agents passed on Saturday with no clubs filing additional cases, shares Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link). Notably, this leaves star goaltender Jeremy Swayman off the list of arbitration cases. Swayman has emerged as one of the league’s strongest goalies over the last four seasons, posting 79 wins and a .919 save percentage across 132 career games. All of those games came in tandem with Vezina Trophy goaltender Linus Ullmark, though, making Swayman’s value as a standalone starter hard to gauge. That led many to anticipating arbitration, though the Bruins will now get to negotiate with Swayman directly. He’ll be set up for the lions share of Bruins’ starts next season, regardless of how these contract talks pan out.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins are leaving the door open for top prospect Brayden Yager to make the 2024-25 roster, shares Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Yager is coming off a championship-winning season in the WHL, scoring 122 points across 77 games while serving as the Moose Jaw Warriors’ top centerman. He also posted five points in five World Juniors games – on the back of very dynamic playmaking in the middle lane. It was a standout year for Yager, capping off what’s been a stellar WHL career, with Yager totaling 250 points in 211 juniors games. Even with the optimism around his chances next season, Yager has not yet signed his entry-level contract and remains eligible for the WHL next season.

14 Players Elect For Salary Arbitration

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Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and originally produced by the National Hockey Leaguer Players’ Association, 14 players have elected for salary arbitration this summer. The deadline for team-elected arbitration is tomorrow. Friedman also notes the arbitration hearings will happen between July 20th and August 4th. To add context, not every one of these players will appear for a hearing with their respective teams as they may continue to negotiate on a new contract. However, each player who elects for salary arbitration is now prohibited from negotiating with other teams or signing an offer sheet. Here is a list of the players that have elected for arbitration:

F Beck Malenstyn (Buffalo Sabres)
G Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (Buffalo Sabres)
F Martin Necas (Carolina Hurricanes)
F Jack Drury (Carolina Hurricanes)
D Jake Christiansen (Columbus Blue Jackets)
G Jet Greaves (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Kirill Marchenko (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Joe Veleno (Detroit Red Wings)
D Spencer Stastney (Nashville Predators)
F Oliver Wahlstrom (New York Islanders)
D Ryan Lindgren (New York Rangers)
D Ty Emberson (San Jose Sharks)
D J.J. Moser (Tampa Bay Lightning)
F Connor Dewar (Toronto Maple Leafs)

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