Exhaustion, acrimony and, ultimately, separation.
Remembering NHL arbitration oh so well ...
The summer of 2007 sawthe arbitration hearing between the Kings and center Mike Cammalleri. Afterward, Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi told me that he "survived." Not only did the Kings survive, but they prevailed when the arbitrator awarded Cammalleri a two-year, $6.7-million contract.
Relationships rarely survive the rugged arbitration process, and this one was not an exception -- Cammalleri ended up getting dispatched to Calgary in a three-way deal with the Flames and Ducks not quite a year after his arbitration case.
Now, can the Nashville Predators and defenseman Shea Weber avoid an eventual parting after Weber was awarded $7.5 million on Wednesday by an arbitrator for the upcoming season, an arbitration record in the NHL? Previously, the high was John LeClair's $7 million in 2000.
"As they say: Well, why didn't you get it done? We just couldn't quite agree on the term, the length or the structure. We just didn't get it done," said Nashville GM David Poile on a conference call with Weber and reporters.
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