The Philadelphia Flyers have a lot going on right now. The main thing is obviously counting down the days that the Anaheim Ducks have to match their offer sheet of star center Leo Carlsson, but there are a couple of other pieces of business that need to get done too. Notably, locking up a couple of very good restricted free agents to new contracts.
Well, those players have now kickstarted that process in this offer sheet matching waiting period.
Both center Trevor Zegras and defenseman Jamie Drysdale filed for salary arbitration on Sunday, according to PuckPedia.
Zegras just had his first season with the Flyers and after having a miserable start to his career with the Ducks — it started off very well but was ruined by injuries and just general mistreatment — he came back with a very strong campaign in Philadelphia with 26 goals and 67 points, which were career-highs in both categories.
He’s coming off a three-year contract with a $5.75-million AAV, but his cap hit will be way beyond that anyways.
For Drysdale, he was more of a reclamation project but has now turned into a very solid top-four defenseman. He has the defense largely figured out in Rick Tocchet’s system but has the potential for more offense, especially if the team gets some better forwards for him to pass the puck to. He’s coming off a three-year deal with a $2.3-million AAV, and while he should be paid a lot more than that, Travis Sanheim’s $6.25-million AAV seems to be the ceiling on a medium-term deal for Drysdale.
What a player filing for salary arbitration means
Maybe the most important thing out of this whole thing is that by Zegras and Drysdale filing for salary arbitration themselves, and not having it be the Flyers, they are ineligible for offer sheets now. So no team can disrupt the arbitration process by just offering either player a big contract to try and steal either restricted free agent away.
Now that the good news (or silver lining) of this is out of the way, time to talk about the process.
At a future date, there will be an arbitration hearing between the player, the Flyers, and with a third-party arbitrator. Both parties will get to plead their case to the arbitrator as to why the player should make a certain salary. Most likely, the team will try to fight for a salary much lower than the player’s agent fights for.
Unlike in the MLB, the arbitrator doesn’t have to choose one of the proposed salaries. They can go somewhere in between and it is almost an automatic result that it is the direct number right in between the two numbers — it’s kind of hilarious how often that happens.
Once that salary is chosen, the party that did not elect arbitration, so in this case it would be the Flyers, gets to choose whether it is a one-year or a two-year contract that the player will be signed to. Since both Zegras and Drysdale are still at least two years away from unrestricted free agency, it can be a one- or two-year deal if this reaches arbitration and goes through this entire process.
But all of this only happens if the Flyers and Drysdale or Zegras actually reach the hearing, which rarely happens.
Doesn’t prevent them from agreeing to a long-term deal
Last year, a total of 11 restricted free agents filed for arbitration and none of them actually reached their hearing date before getting signed to a deal by their team. And that’s the case for most years. Players file for arbitration just to have some sort of start to their contract negotiation if there is a pause, or just to guarantee that there will not be an offer sheet coming their way that might be so enticing that they will sign it and leave their current team.
It could be for a variety of reasons that a player elects for arbitration, but it rarely ever ends in actually attending a hearing. Because, it can be awful. The player can hear a whole lot of nasty things from their general manager and potentially sour the relationship. Because we’re sure general manager Danny Briere loves Trevor Zegras, but if he had to prove why he should be paid less than he thinks, he could certainly talk all about how he might not even be a center, has defensive lapses, isn’t a big player, had just one good season and could be bad again like he just was in Anaheim, and has injury concerns. And all of that would be right to his face.
It’s a process no one really wants to go through.
That’s why, it wouldn’t surprise us if both Zegras and Drysdale are signed to long-term deals before any of that arbitration process truly happens.
By electing for arbitration, it does not prevent the players and the Flyers from negotiating a contract any further. It’s not like they have to completely avoid each other and can’t talk unless it is in front of a third party. Both Zegras and Drysdale have expressed their interest to stay in Philadelphia and be a part of the Flyers, so they will continue to have these contract negotiations.
It’s just that now these negotiations have a little bit of a deadline.
Per the NHLPA, salary arbitration hearings will be held from July 20 to August 1. So, the Flyers basically have at least 10 days after the Leo Carlsson decision is final to then sign both Zegras and Drysdale to contracts, to avoid the nasty experience.
Zegras and Drysdale filing for salary arbitration is nothing to be too concerned about, but it is them wanting to get a deal done faster than negotiations are humming along. Which, given their history in Anaheim and missing training camp because of not having contracts yet, that is totally understandable.
