Wellwood:
“Will there be sandwiches at the arbitration meeting?”

Head of arbitration commitee:
Ronald McDonald

It doesn’t necessarily mean that arbitration will actually happen. Usually an agreement is reached before that point, but at least this prevents Wellwood from receiving an offer sheet. Maybe that is the reason behind it?

Sometimes players seem to file for arbitration as kind of an insurance just in case they can’t come to an agreement, the arbitrator will make a decision for them and they will at least have a contract for the next season or so. It would break a deadlock if the team and player can’t come to an agreement on their own.

Someone posted this statement from Schroeder’s college hockey coach, which I tend to believe more than the rumours:
When notified of these opinions, and asked of his own opinion on Schroeder’s character and personality, here’s what Minnesota Gophers head coach Don Lucia had to say: "I am shocked to hear these rumors about Jordan. He is a great young man who always put his team first. He played with Ryan Stoa last year and they had great chemistry and at the end of the year meeting I asked Jordan who he would like to play with next year. I ask a lot of our returning players this question to see who they think they might want as line-mates. Jordan answered my question and was open to many options next year. Jordan does not have an ego and is a joy to coach. I think he will be a leader on our team next year. He works hard and is driven to be an elite player. Vancouver drafted a winner in him."

The fact that an arbitrator would award Pudge more money than Gillis offered him seems laughable to me. Maybe I’m way off base, but I assume the arbitrator will look heavily at Kyle’s point total, and 27 in 74 games isn’t too gaudy. Maybe he’s bluffing in order to settle for a little more cash?

Really, it just seems kind of greedy to me. I mean look at it, the Canucks picked up the Leafs’ trash and gave him a chance to play on a contending team and be a key component on its power play. Sure, I know it’s a business, but c’mon Kyle, show some gratitude.

i mean, isn’t cody hodgson just a better player for the role that wellwood plays on the team anyway?

i don’t know what the canucks qualifying offer was but since kyle was under 1M salary last season they had to offer at least 105% or 997,500 to keep his rights. if pudge thinks he’s worth over 1M per he’s probably right but i don’t think he has the history to command a big offer. this is a guy that went through waivers untouched twice.

I posted this link on the comments of the Schroeder thread. Not only does it contain the glowing comments of his college coach, but the article contains in depth (and very favorable) analyses of all of the Canuck’s draft picks.
http://insidehockey.com/columns/3943

I’m posting this here because I’ll leave starting a new post to Z and Yankee. Canucks sign Shane O’ Brien to a one year, 1.6 mil deal. They also sign Andrew Raycroft to be Luongo’s backup, no details released. Props to TSN.

Shit, Beauchemin to Toronto for 3.8 mill x 3 years. At least he’s now an eastern player. I love how Burke is putting together another team that will be good enough to just miss the playoffs. Toronto never figured out the whole ‘rebuilding’ concept. They constantly get ok players at the draft because they never get top 5 picks, and yet they never make the playoffs. It’s hilarious. Anaheim lost big on D this summer with Pronger and Beauchy, though. We’ll see how they fair.

Beantown, are we going to have to take away your ties and shoelaces?

Just posted something on Raycroft. Will get to SOB in a minute…