Hearing Dates Set For Players Who Filed For Arbitration
Salary arbitration hearings are a little more than a week away with a total of 15 players filing for one earlier this month. Ottawa’s Xavier Bourgault has already signed while the other 14 are still without contracts. PuckPedia has received the schedule for hearing dates, which is as follows:
July 20
D Jamie Drysdale, Flyers
F Cole Perfetti, Jets
July 22
F Trevor Zegras, Flyers
July 23
G Jet Greaves, Blue Jackets
July 25
F Connor McMichael, Blues
F Jason Robertson, Stars
July 27
F Cole Sillinger, Blue Jackets
July 28
F Nicholas Robertson, Penguins
July 29
D Braden Schneider, Rangers
D Ronan Seeley, Hurricanes
July 30
F Kirby Dach, Canadiens
F Alex Jefferies, Islanders
August 1
F Peyton Krebs, Sabres
G Akira Schmid, Panthers
Philadelphia will be busy early in the process but that is by choice, as teams can request where their players are scheduled on the arbitration docket. Conversely, teams like Montreal, Florida, and Buffalo likely requested that their players be placed at the back, allowing for more time for negotiations or planning.
A refresher on the arbitration rules:
- 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 of the closing.
- 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 term.
- The team decides on the awarded term, as these were all player elections.
- The team can walk away from the arbitration decision if a contract with an average annual value of more than $4.9508MM is Teams have 48 hours to decide if they’ll accept or walk away.
Once a team has had all of its cases settled or awarded, a second buyout window will open up three days later. However, only a player who was on the roster at the trade deadline and has a cap charge of $4MM or more is eligible to be bought out during this 48-hour window.
15 Players Elect For Salary Arbitration
The deadline to file for salary arbitration passed at 5 P.M. ET on July 5. 15 players elected to head to arbitartion before then, including the market’s top free agent, Dallas Stars’ winger Jason Robertson. Arbitration hearings will take place between late-July and early-August. Filing for arbitration will restrict players from negotiating contracts with any other team, removing high-value RFAs like Robertson from offer sheet eligibility. Players will have the opportunity to continue negotiating with their current team and could avoid arbitration by reaching a new deal before their hearing occurs. The full list of players who filed for salary arbitration in 2026, per Chris Johnston of The Athletic, is as follows:
F Xavier Bourgault (Ottawa Senators)
F Kirby Dach (Montreal Canadiens)
D Jamie Drysdale (Philadelphia Flyers)
G Jet Greaves (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Alex Jefferies (New York Islanders)
F Peyton Krebs (Buffalo Sabres)
F Connor McMichael (St. Louis Blues)
F Cole Perfetti (Winnipeg Jets)
F Jason Robertson (Dallas Stars)
F Nicholas Robertson (Pittsburgh Penguins)
G Akira Schmid (Florida Panthers)
D Braden Schneider (New York Rangers)
D Ronan Seeley (Carolina Hurricanes)
F Cole Sillinger (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Trevor Zegras (Philadelphia Flyers)
Islanders Sign Alex Jefferies, Henrik Tikkanen To Entry-Level Deals
The Islanders have inked left wing Alex Jefferies and goaltender Henrik Tikkanen to two-year entry-level contracts, per a team release. The deals begin in the 2024-25 season. Financial terms were not disclosed.
A fourth-round pick by the Isles in 2020, Jefferies spent the last four seasons in collegiate hockey with Merrimack. He leaves the program as its highest-scoring player of the decade thus far, posting 41 goals, 56 assists, 97 points and a -1 rating in 105 games played. Jefferies signed an ATO with AHL Bridgeport to finish the season last month, faring well with three goals and three assists in 10 games on a bottom-feeder club. The baby Isles still have two games left on their regular-season schedule.
The 22-year-old is unlikely to contend for a roster spot next season, but back-to-back point-per-game campaigns at Merrimack suggest he could receive an NHL call-up before his ELC expires in 2026. The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler ranked him as the sixth-best prospect in the Islanders’ league-worst pool earlier this year, praising his quick release, skating ability, and overall offensive IQ.
Tikkanen, 23, was selected three rounds after Jefferies in 2020. The 6’7″ netminder came to North America before last season, signing a minor-league contract with Bridgeport. He didn’t suit up for the top-level affiliate in 2022-23, though, spending the entire season on assignment to ECHL Worcester, where he had a .914 SV%, 3.02 GAA and two shutouts in 38 appearances. It was the same story last summer – Bridgeport re-upped him but sent him to Worcester to begin the campaign. He got off to a mediocre start there but was recalled to Bridgeport in late December, where he broke out with a .927 SV% and 2.17 GAA in 16 showings behind the worst team in the AHL.
Bridgeport sent him back to the ECHL last month, where his overall numbers on the season have actually been quite disappointing (.892 SV%, 3.22 GAA in 20 GP). The Isles are hoping Tikkanen’s ceiling is more reflective of the form he flashed with Bridgeport mid-season. With an NHL contract in hand, he joins the organization’s top goalie prospect Tristan Lennox and underwhelming farmhand Jakub Skarek as recall options behind Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov next season. Veteran Bridgeport netminder Kenneth Appleby was signed to an NHL contract this season but is a pending UFA.