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Originally Posted by Strange Brew
So Tkachuk's arb date is the latest possible? That can't just be luck can it?
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No, the dates aren't assigned randomly. The league and PA alternate assigning each hearing to an available date/time/arbitrator until they've all been scheduled. I'd guess the Flames (and possibly Tkachuk's agent) asked for the latest possible date to give them maximum time to get something done.
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Originally Posted by Icon
Probably something related to avoiding essentially 9 year deals, or cap circumvention for a cheap 1st year followed right away by a bigger contract behind it... or other scenarios to block GMs from being too creative.
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Or the flip side of that if a team has excess cap space today, overpay for one year then give him a cheaper long-term deal tomorrow.
That's essentially what Carolina did with Kotkaniemi last year (but they did it to force Montreal to not match the offer sheet), but they had to wait until mid-season before he could sign the 8-year extension, which adds some uncertainty to the situation for both the team and player.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Icon
If they make it to Aug 11, they have to do the arbitration hearing, there'll be an arbitrator's decision which the team has to agree to (and sign him to 1yr), or they turn down the arbitrator's decision, and he becomes a UFA doesn't he?
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Because the Flames filed for arbitration, they can't walk away from an arbitration award. If it does get to the arbitration hearing, he'd be locked-in to a one-year contract.