It took Blake Wheeler and the Boston Bruins a weekend trip to Toronto and a meeting with an arbitrator to agree to financial terms. But at the end of the day, or three days, the two sides met halfway and can now focus on the task at hand: preparing for the 2010-11 NHL season.
The Boston Bruins made it official this morning by accepting the arbitrator’s ruling and inking 23-year-old Blake Wheeler to a one-year, $2.2 million deal for the upcoming 2010-11 NHL season.
“It is never a pleasant experience for either side to go to arbitration,” said Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli. “However, as a manager, you know that the player will be under contract for the following year either way. We talked to Blake before and after the hearing and we are satisfied to have a good, young player under contract
for another year.”
With the signing, we now know the Bruins have surpassed the NHL-set $59.4 million salary cap limit for the season. Fortunately the Bruins still have until Oct. 9 (opening night in Prague) to make that number.
There will be a conference call in the next hour to media. More later.
After two days of deliberation, Elizabeth Neumeier—the arbitrator in Blake Wheeler’s hearing—yesterday set the 23-year-old’s 2010-11 NHL salary at $2.2 million. And this morning, the Bruins made quick work of their own 48-hour window to make a decision and accepted the arbitrator’s ruling by inking Wheeler to the one-year deal.
The first of three was the most unlikely of scenarios: Boston could have ‘walked away’ from No. 26 and his $2.2 million award. If the Bruins had exercised this right, then the 6′5″ Wheeler would have become an unrestricted free-agent, and the club would have received zero compensation for the former first-round draft pick.
The arbitration hearing between the Boston Bruins and their restricted free-agent (RFA) Blake Wheeler was held this morning in Toronto, Canada, after the two sides failed come to a mutual contract agreement. A player can only go to arbitration once in his NHL career, so this will be the first and last time Wheeler can use this bargaining tool to settle any future contract disputes.
“[the hearing] Went well – not contentious at all.” Wheeler’s agent Matt Keator told TheHubofHockey.net this afternoon. “Professionally done on both sides”
Okay, so I’m three months premature here, but I just had to start kicking the tires on the possible opening day lineup for the 2010-11 Boston Bruins.
First, before I list my possible line combinations, here are a few things related that we need to know:
After working ten hours last night and thinking about the recent Ilya Kovalchuk signing, I was pretty stoked to come home and see that the NHL had rejected the ludicrous $102M contract that was to keep the 27-year-old phenom in New Jersey for the next 17-years.
After years of NHL general managers finding loopholes to circumvent the current Collective Bargaining Agreement’s (CBA) regulations on players’ salaries, the NHL has finally had enough and stepped-in to help salvage a bit of its integrity.
It’s official: the Boston Bruins have re-signed defenseman and restricted free-agent, Mark Stuart, to a one-year contract worth $1.675M. The B’s now have their six starting defenseman under contract for this upcoming 2010-11 NHL season—Zdeno Chara, Dennis Seidenberg, Johnny Boychuk, Andrew Ference, Matt Hunwick and Stuart.
According to capgeek.com, the Bruins have less than $2M of cap-space remaining. So this deal ($200K less than Boychuk, and just $225K more than Hunwick), is a most certainly a hometown discount, while giving the Bruins an extra year to up his pay and years at the end of this contract.
Earlier this week, the Bruins also signed blue-liner Nathan McIver to a two-year contract; adding depth to their back-end. Also in the mix for that possible seventh (or even sixth) spot in the blue-line are Yuri Alexandrov, Andrew Bondarchuk and Jeff Penner, to name a few.
Stuart is coming off an injury-plagued season in which he saw his 213 consecutive games-played come to an end via two separate injuries: sternum and finger. He posted 2-5-7 in 56 games played this past 2009-10 NHL season with 80 PIM, 83 blocked shots, and 103 hits. He made it back from injuries to dress in four post season games for Boston, but had zero points and a minus-4 rating.
The 26-year-old Stuart has 252 career NHL games under his belt, and has posted 12-23-35 scoring totals and 261 penalty minutes. The 6′2″ Stuart has also appeared in 22 post season contests, registering 0-2-2 totals.
The 2010 Boston Bruins Development Camp schedule can be viewed here, and below is the roster of players/participants.
Forwards:
Tyler Brenner, Jordan Caron, Joe Colborne, Craig Cunningham, Alexander Fallstrom, Justin Florek, Mark Goggin, Jared Knight, Tyler Randell, Maxime Sauve, Tyler Seguin, Ben Sexton, Ryan Spooner, Nick Tremblay
Defensemen:
Yuri Alexandrov, Matt Bartkowski, Ryan Button, Marc Cantin, Tommy Cross,
Ryan Donald, Steve Kampfer, Zach Trotman, David Warsofsky
Goaltenders:
Adam Courchaine, Matt Dalton, Zane Gothberg, Mike Hutchinson
* Maxime Sauve is injured, but will attend
** Goaltender Zane Gothberg is not yet confirmed
You can also download a PDF of the roster here with the players’ info (age, height, weight, place of birth etc) or here, courtesy of the Boston Bruins Media Relations Department.
The Boston Bruins Media Relations Department has released the schedule, as of July 1, for their fourth annual Bruins Development Camp for the upcoming 2010-11 NHL season.
Tuesday, July 6 (Wilmington and Bedford, MA)
-Fitness testing at Ristuccia Arena, 190 Main St. Wilmington, MA (closed to the public and media)
-Team building activities at The Edge Sports Center 191 Hartwell Rd. Bedford, MA, at 1:00 p.m. EST
Wednesday, July 7 (Wilmington, MA)
-Team building activities at Ristuccia Arena (closed to both public and media)
-Practice at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington, 1:00 p.m. EST
Thursday, July 8 (Wilmington, MA)
-Practice at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington, 10:00 a.m. EST
-Off-ice workout (closed to both public and media)
Friday, July 9 (Wilmington, MA)
-Practice at Ristuccia at 10:00 a.m. ET
-Off-ice workouts (closed to both public and media)
Saturday, July 10 (Wilmington, MA)
-Practice at Ristuccia at 11:00 a.m. EST
(Note: all times and locations are subject to change)
Just under 24 hours into the NHL’s free-agency period, and as usual, the Boston Bruins remained quiet and inactive—inking just two players to contracts.
The B’s signed penalty-killing specialist Daniel Paille to a two-year, $2,15M contract, for a cap-hit of $1.075M annually. A pretty solid deal for the speedy bottom-6 forward who led the team in penalty-kill time-on-ice average (1:59).
“I thought when we acquired Dan, he really helped show up our penalty killing, he brought us speed to the lineup, to the forward group.” said Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli during last night’s conference call. “He also was able to play up and down the lineup, so he was helpful when we ran into injuries. So we signed him for two years and he’s in our forward group now
“With his speed, his size, his ability to forecheck I think once he gets his confidence back you’ll see him in a variety of spots. Certainly at the very least he’ll be in that slot [forth line], but I expect more things too of Dan.”