Marcus Johansson and the Washington Capitals are scheduled for their arbitration hearing this Wednesday (July 20th) in Toronto. Initial pre-case filings required by each side in advance of the hearing were submitted to the NHL today.
As expected, the sides are a significant amount apart.
Marcus Johansson:
Club arb offer: $3.85M. Player ask: $5.25M— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 18, 2016
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Again, these are starting points for the negotiations on Wednesday, with the final number likely to fall somewhere in between. It’s common practice for teams to “low ball” and players ask for a lot more than they want, just to begin negotiations.
On these numbers, they’re typically lower and higher than what each side realistically expects. Yanno, negotiation.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) July 18, 2016
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Marcus Johansson started negotiations last summer (2015) with an initial number of $4.75 million, and ended up with a final contract value of $3.75 million. Johansson can still sign a deal with the Caps at any time up until the ruling is announced. The arbitration hearing will be for a one-year deal, and Johansson will be an unrestricted free agent (UFA) at the conclusion of it.
The Washington Post has reported that “General Manager Brian MacLellan has indicated an uneasiness about what a one-year arbitration ruling for Johansson would look like this time around, as he has some favorable comparables. An arbitrator awarded Johansson $3.75 million after a breakout season, when he finished with 20 goals and 27 assists and played in every game. He maintained that production last season with 17 goals and 29 assists in 74 games.”
By Jon Sorensen
I’m guessing somewhere in the middle, say $4.75 million.
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