According to TSN, 20 players chose to file for salary arbitration with their current teams by last night's deadline. Among those, not surprisingly, was Carolina Hurricanes winger Tuomo Ruutu.
Ruutu recieved a qualifying offer from the team as a Restricted Free Agent, and the move for the player to file for arbitration is a natural development in the process at this point. Arbitration hearings will take place sometime around the end of July (not sure if the exact date(s) has been set), and teams and their players will continue to negotiate between now and then. Historically, deals are reached before any actual arbitration hearing. As a point of reference, Chad LaRose filed for arbitration last season, but ended up signing with the team a week or so before any hearing took place. Of the 15 players in the NHL who filed for arbitration in the summer of 2008, only 2 went all the way through to arbitration. In general, arbitration hearings can turn into pretty contentious affairs, so both players and management usually try to avoid them at all cost.
If teams wish to take a player to arbitration, they must file before 5pm today (July 6th).
(This is not an issue for the Hurricanes.)
Bubba has a good recap of the Ruutu situation, as it stands right now, over at Canes Country.
I'm hoping they are able to get creative within their budget and lock Tuomo up for a long term (3-4 years) deal. But that's still to be determined. If not, a one year deal is likely, at a slight raise, and Ruutu becomes a UFA next summer. Based on his numbers and performance, Ruutu definitely deserves a raise. Fingers crossed that the team and the player can reach an agreement that is seen as fair by both.
If you want to see the full list of players filing for arbitration and some background on the process check out James Mirtle's post over at From The Rink.
-m
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