Shea Weber awarded $7.5M in arbitration.
Cam Charron
August 03 2011 01:28PM
The month of July forced many Canuck fans to lean forward a tiny bit in their chairs whenever any discussion of Shea Weber took place.The BC-born defenseman aroused the interest of many a fan, across all teams, of course, but he is very near and dear to those of us in British Columbia. He's from here, he played against Vancouver in the 2nd round playoff series, and, of course, we all remember that legendary time he broke the net in the Olympics.
Today, Weber was awarded a $7.5MM contract by an arbitrator. Myself and Thomas Drance, big fans of Weber, but also staunch advocates of #MoneyPuck, do not believe that this is a reasonable contract. In fact, this is such an overpriced number, that I hardly want any Canuck fans to entertain the possibility of trading for Shea Weber with that hit. (This means you too, Yankee. No rosterbaiting)
What I would have you do instead, is just sort of stare into space at the figure. $7,500,000.00 will buy you a single season of Shea Weber. It will also buy you two Alex Edlers plus change, a half-dozen Andrew Alberts' and a good handful of Aaron Romes, all of which, used in the proper combination, are of more marginal worth to a hockey team than one Shea Weber.
He's a great player, inarguably one of the best defensemen in the league, but $7.5 million?!? Holy smokes.
Open market he would easily command that! He IS that team and should be paid like he is. 5 mil, a joke of an offer...
Yeah, the 7.5 is steep, but a long-term deal will lower that cap hit beyond season 1 (and it's unlikely anyone will acquire him until at least trade deadline day, but even more likely is the draft or even next summer).
At 27, you could sign him to a 13 year deal, 10-10-10-8-8-8-7-7-5-4-3-2-1 for a cap hit of 6.3. He's definitely worth it.
@G_r_r
if it was so easy, he would be signed already.