Bruins, Wideman on course for arbitration?
Fluto Shinzawa of The Boston Globe reports that the Boston Bruins would prefer to take pending restricted free agent defenseman Dennis Wideman to arbitration than ink him to a multi-year deal.
Not because they want to be stingy with their only NHL-ready puck-moving blueliner, but because they want to determine if the 25-year-old’s breakthrough season was a fluke or not. The Bruins would like to see Wideman sustain his level of play for at least one more season before deciding to lock him up long-term.
Wideman, who is expected to get a raise either way, has a few options at his disposal: “accept a one-year qualifying offer and hope he has another solid season in 2008-09; sign a multiyear extension; or go to arbitration.”
His current comparables include Brent Seabrook of the Chicago Blackhawks, Brent Burns of the Minnesota Wild, and Niklas Kronwall of the Detroit Red Wings. They all earn at least $3 million per season.
Of course, Wideman’s representatives will also keep tabs on the likes of Mike Green of the Washington Capitals, Andrej Meszaros of the Ottawa Senators, and Ryan Suter of the Nashville Predators and their negotiations. Whatever each player in that trio manage to sign for could also impact Wideman.
Author Bio
A Front-End Web Developer and huge hockey fan, Alin Mateescu is also the founder of and driving force behind RumorMeThis.
Alin also runs nhlsalarycap.info, a website dedicated to tracking the salary cap situation of all 30 NHL teams.
Want to write your own blog? Visit AMWebTech.com to find out more about how Alin can help you design, monetize, and market your own blog.
» View all articles filled by Alin Mateescu.
» Subscribe to Alin Mateescu's RSS feed here.
» Visit Alin Mateescu's website at: http://www.amwebtech.com
More Articles by Alin Mateescu
NEXT: Carter, Peca, Miller, Tucker, Halak, Murray, and Ranger
PREVIOUS: Senators potential off-season departures, and re-acquisitions
1 Comment
Keep track of this discussion by subscribing to this post's RSS feed.
Sign in to comment
Not a member of RumorMeThis? Register here.
Makes sense, but it’s kind of a gamble too. Look at the Avery situation in New York, and you see what happens after a drawn out arbitration process. There’s resentment and stubborn-ness. Wideman hasn’t proven he can keep it up, but in an age where these puck-moving defencemen are in high demand, the Bruins might be best served by offering him a deal now rather than engaging in arbitration. I’d say a fair offer would be $2.25M for 4 seasons.
by Dan Rakusan on March 24th, 2008 at 2:34 PM EDT