Place Your Bets: Blake Wheeler's Arbitration is coming up on July 27th

Okay, folks. There's not much happening with the Bruins lately but we've started to get the early returns for arbitration come in. So far there have been 2 cases that have come back: Clarke Macarthur and Jannik Hansen.

Clarke Macarthur

Previous salary (per capgeek): 1.4m

Award: 2.4 Million (not accepted)

Stats: (from Hockey-Reference.com)

Season	Age	Team	Lg	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	S	S%	TOI	ATOI
2006-07	21	Buffalo Sabres	NHL	19	3	4	7	4	4	3	0	0	0	16	18.8	169	8:54
2007-08	22	Buffalo Sabres	NHL	37	8	7	15	3	20	8	0	0	1	51	15.7	539	14:34
2008-09	23	Buffalo Sabres	NHL	71	17	14	31	-4	56	12	5	0	0	108	15.7	982	13:50
2009-10	24	2 Teams	NHL	81	16	19	35	-16	49	11	4	1	3	129	12.4	1190	14:42
2009-10	24	Buffalo Sabres	NHL	60	13	13	26	-14	47	10	3	0	3	99	13.1	862	14:22
2009-10	24	Atlanta Thrashers	NHL	21	3	6	9	-2	2	1	1	1	0	30	10.0	328	15:37
Career		4 Seasons	NHL	208	44	44	88	-13	129	34	9	1	4	304	14.5	2880	13:51

Clarke Macarthur took his time coming into the NHL, similar to Wheeler. However, he spent time in the AHL and didn't really play a full season until 08-09. His 2 seasons of 31 and 35 are a bit less than Wheelers'. Uh oh.

Jannik Hansen

Previous salary (per capgeek): 550k

Award: 825k (accepted)

Stats (from Hockey-Reference.com)

Season	Age	Team	Lg	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	S	S%	TOI	ATOI
2007-08	21	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	5	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	3	0.0	58	11:34
2008-09	22	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	55	6	15	21	5	37	6	0	0	1	64	9.4	688	12:31
2009-10	23	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	47	9	6	15	-5	18	8	0	1	3	67	13.4	580	12:20
Career		3 Seasons	NHL	107	15	21	36	0	57	14	0	1	4	134	11.2	1326	12:24

Jannik Hansen seems to be a third-liner for the Canucks, was making league minimum, and now is making slightly less than league minimum.

Blake Wheeler

Previous salary (per capgeek): $875k salary plus 2.05m performance bonuses = 2.825m cap hit.

Award: Your guess here!

Stats (from Hockey-Reference.com)

Season	Age	Team	Lg	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	S	S%	TOI	ATOI
2008-09	22	Boston Bruins	NHL	81	21	24	45	36	46	16	3	2	3	150	14.0	1109	13:41
2009-10	23	Boston Bruins	NHL	82	18	20	38	-4	53	14	3	1	2	159	11.3	1295	15:47
Career		2 Seasons	NHL	163	39	44	83	32	99	30	6	3	5	309	12.6	2404	14:45

Look at that odd PIM total. Remember when he dropped the purse with Ryan O'Byrne?

Blake's hearing is July 27th and if the Bruins don't sign him I wouldn't be too surprised to see him walk. If he does, he's definitely getting picked up by someone else. I know some people on here hate him for not being a superstar in his sophomore year but personally I think he's got promise.

If you're not familiar with the process, you basically find comparable RFA players that have signed contracts and use them as evidence for how much the player should make. Here's what I wrote about Greg Campbell when he filed for arbitration in a comment on this story:

So looking for a comparable, I (of course) went to Hockey-reference and cut it down to this group by ppg, PIMs, Games played (after removing anyone whose time there was pre-lockout)

1 Stephane Veilleux 2003-2010 – ended up signing a one-year/$737,500 contract with the Wild of 08-09 to avoid salary arbitration. 4 Gregory Campbell 2004-2010 – the man of the hour 5 Brian Sutherby 2003-2009 – signed a one-year/$700,000 contract with the Ducks in 2008 as an RFA. 6 Jordin Tootoo 2004-2010 – might be a better player than Campbell, got a two-year, $600,000 AAV contract back in 2006 as an RFA 7 Matt Bradley 2001-2007 – might be too out of date to matter, and apparently signed a UFA contract before he signed as a RFA one year later, and I can’t find any numerical data. Making 1 million a year now.

(AAV stands for Average Annual Value, aka Cap Hit)

So I’m hopeful he’s not going to go over 800,000.

Greg Campbell later signed a deal for 1.1m AAV/2 years.

I tried to track down my comment about Wheeler's comparables but then I remember only finding one or two.

So, what do you think? Who's a good RFA comparable to Wheeler and how much do you think he'll get in arbitration?

Good luck, everyone.

(this was originally posted as a fanpost on StanleyCupOfChowder.com)

GO BRUINS!

Unsung Heroic Moments: Andrew Ference breaks his leg killing a penalty - November 13, 2008

Well there hasn't been a whole lot of news and I couldn't make it to prospect camp (go go Seg Knight line!) and I saw on Twitter that Andrew Ference went to visit the BP oil spill the other day. The same day they got that second, functioning cap on it.

Now, I'm not saying that Andy actually fixed the problem. But I am saying the guy probably had a little to do with it. He did start a Carbon Neutral Challenge program for NHL players to buy carbon offset credits. He and Chara both support Right to Play, and Andy even donated a motorcycle to them for a charity auction. But enough about his charitable works. I want to talk about a fateful November night back in 2008. The Bruins beat the Habs at home, 6-1, but there was some bad news as well. Here's what I wrote about it back then:

The worst part of this whole period was Andrew Ference going down in the Bs defensive zone. He stayed down for a while, and then when the ref refused to call the injury stoppage, he had to get up and limp around until they could get it out. It probably aggravated his injury, too. Still, he still played some solid defense on one leg.

Gnarly, right? Yeah, I think we can all agree that sounds like it sucked. He was out until January 27th. Interesting point about that night: Going into the game, he lead the team with a +9 rating. He played the 4th-most minutes out of all Bruins and didn't play the third period. He was doing really really really well and then Andrei Markov slaps one from the point and snaps his tibia. Terrible news. I want to highlight one bit here, though:

Still, he still played some solid defense on one leg.

Yup, that's what I wrote a year and a half ago, and I stand by it now. Andrew Ference is an awesome dude. As for that night? There were a couple other highlights, like Stephane Yelle and Shawn Thornton each assisting on each other's goals, Carey Price posting a .806 save percentage, and Lucic absolutely destroying Mike Komisarek. Here's the video:

Ference's moment is at 3:29 or so, but the whole game is excellent.

Enjoy your summers....sigh....

(see you in Prague!)

GO BRUINS!

Free Agency Day One Review: Boogey-ing with a big Jokinen

Let's see here, anything big happen yesterday?

On the Bruins front, we didn't overpay for anybody, and that's just awesome. It was a really really weak Free Agent market and some people definitely got overpaid as a result. First up on that list, and most hilarious signing of the day: Derek Boogaard.

Here's a statline, courtesy of TSN and the something awful forums:

January 7th, 2006: Boogard's last goal.

So yeah, he's getting 1.65 million per year for the next 4 years per TSN. Thank goodness for Glen Sather or we'd have nothing to write about on free agency days.

Yeah, 1.65 million for a guy who nobody even bothers fighting anymore. He's had a negative GVT for the last couple of years, which means that he is literally worse than your average AHL scrub callup. Yeah, enjoy that 5 minutes a night of stony glares and some huge punches. Plus that fight camp for kids ought to be a hit with inner-city youth. Maybe he'll get a cameo on Rescue Me, though. Meh.

He was a fan favorite with the Wild but I'm thinking most of those jerseys were bought a couple years ago rather than recently. It's kinda telling that on the Minnesota Wild PONDcast special interview with him on his way out of town, they ask about the lack of goals for years. John Scott also got picked up by Chicago, and I'm sure they'll move him to forward and make Luongo cry like a little girl. Again.

In more news about former northwestern division players signing hilarious deals with terrible GMs, it's time to talk the Olli Jokinen signing. Yeah, he signed with Calgary again. If you don't remember, Olli was a Flame after a couple of trades. Post-lockout he was sent to the Coyotes. That's where the fun begins. He was traded from Phoenix to Calgary for Calgary's first round pick, then run out of town by Calgary for being a cancer in the dressing room. (See also: Dion Phaneuf to Toronto). What did Calgary give up in the Phoenix trade? A first-round pick. Then they got back Ales Kotalik (who sucked so much he was bought out) and Chris Higgins (still a UFA) from New York for him. He was the last New York player to touch the puck in the 09-10 season, famously not scoring in a shootout which allowed the Flyers to make the playoffs.

If that doesn't get you chuckling, maybe this picture or my severe lack of an editor will:

(How to draw Olli Jokinen)

Ridiculous gong show in Calgary, that. I suggest looking at Ryan Lambert's twitter for reactions. Yup, that about covers it.

In actual Bruins news, the Bruins re-signed Paille to a fair 1.075 Million/year for the next 2 years and Jeremy Reich got re-signed as well. Considering Reich couldn't sniff the Islanders roster last year, I would be surprised to see him up in Boston. Eh, no biggie.

Anyhow, time to watch some soccer. Hit up Four Habs Fans for a pretty ladies preview of that, if you're into pretty ladies.

HUP HOLLAND!

HUP ORANJ!

GO BRUINS!

2010 Bruins Draft Review: Tyler Seguin, Jared Knight, and a bunch of teenagers

Oh this? Just OHL MVP. No big deal.

Tyler Seguin's been talked to death but I'm still Psyched for Seguin. Puck Prospectus said he wasn't as good as Hall but that's why he went second overall instead of first. Whatever, he's going to be good. But now it's time to get excited for our next pick.

It's time to Jump for Jared Knight

Face of a killer, I tell you what.

Let's take a look at the next draft pick, though: Jared Knight. Jared plays for the London Knights of the OHL, and is interesting to say the least. Here's a quick highlight clip:

Pretty exciting, right? I know! I know!

Look at that, he's at the net in a bunch of the clips. A kid who goes to the net. And a RW to boot, which granted we don't need as much as LWs but it's still exciting that we've got a good winger in the pipe. Lets take a look at his OHL production, where he was 5th in points on his team with 36-21-57. However, he had the most goals of the team all year. In the playoffs, he went 10-7-17 (3rd) in 12 games, though he again lead his team in goals with that 10. The kid has a nose for the net and likes scoring goals, which can only be music to Bruins fans' ears.

Basically when Recchi retires in 2 7 years Knight will take his spot. Get ready (in like 1-2 years) to Jump for Jared Knight! Go Nuts for Knight!

GO BRUINS!

p.s. if there are any London Knights fans out there, please get in touch.

Oilers media doesn't understand how drafts work; still attempting to tamper

Like the rest of you, I've been trying to read up on prospect news and interesting facts about Tyler Seguin and whoever the Bruins end up with with their other pick. So like any good hockey fan, I went to TSN's draftcentre and was immediately smacked in the face with a story about the Oilers next jersey and ticket seller, Taylor Hall. Hall had a press conference with the Oilers recently and the media there tried to convince him to play for Edmonton instead of Boston.

Now before you get all worked up about the Oilers taking Hall - they will, and with the first overall pick - know that Hall was in Boston the week prior, basically doing the same thing. Hall and Seguin are both being scouted by only Boston and Edmonton. Now that that's over with, here's the meat of the story and evidence of the vile Edmonton media's laughable attempt at tampering:

He laughed when asked if he knew the difference between the Alberta drinking age -- 18 -- and the drinking age in Massachusetts --21.

"Doesn't matter to me. I am a hockey player."

Well obviously it doesn't matter. Cowboys is in Calgary. But you can see the insidious plot to convince Taylor Hall to....well, huh. The funny thing about this question is that whether Taylor Hall can walk into any bar in Alberta (because he's of age) or any bar in Boston (because he's a superstar) probably doesn't play into whether the Oilers pick him first or not. This is not the end of the Oilers' media treachery, however...the plot thickens:

Is he a steak man or a seafood man?

"I like steak."

Though there are plenty of wonderful places to get a steak in or near Boston, and I'd probably say "steak" as well, this is an obvious dig at Boston's coastal nature and seafood industry, and an opportunity to mention that Alberta produces half of Canada's beef.

This obvious attempt at tampering will not stand!

GO BRUINS!

This post was originally a fanpost on SCoC.