Today was arbitration day for the Predators and Shea Weber. Josh Cooper from the Tennessean has been an all-star with the twitter updates, and the usual suspects in the Predator blogworld have done a great job covering the event as well.
In short…
Predators offered $4.75 million.
Weber camp requested $8.5 million.
I imagine that whatever was being discussed prior to the hearing was somewhere in the middle… but those were the numbers that they filed with the arbiter.
The Predators can still work out a deal with the Weber camp before the arbiter rules, or the arbiter will work out a number likely somewhere in between.
Just for kicks….let’s take a look at what other folks are set to make this year.
Preds offer: $4.75 million
Keith Yandle (PHO): $4.75
Dan Hamhuis (Van): $5 million (Yes that’s right. The Preds arbitration offer was less than what Dan Hamhuis is scheduled to make this year.)
37-year old Sergei Gonchar (OTT): $5.5 million
Dion Phaneuf (TOR): $6.5 million
Zdeno Chara (BOS): $8.5 million
Weber request: $8.5 million
Christian Ehrhoff (BUF): Top paid D-man, $10 million
We may never know what the sticking point was in the negotiations leading up to the hearing, but hopefully nothing that came out in the hearing will be taken so personally that there may be a divorce on the horizon. Is that wishful thinking? Maybe.
Admirals Roundtable 
As I’ve expressed before I’m big fan of shea, watching him for the brief time here in milwaukee you just could tell like you could with pekka that he was destined to shine in the nhl and now its time for the preds to pay up. I honestly hope he can win a cup in his career not sure that nashville will ever be the right place for that to happen, regardless here’s to weber and hoping he gets some serious money!
Christian Ehrhoff at $10 million? I don’t think that’s right…capgeek.com has him at $4 million a year.
The cap hit for Ehrhoff is 4 million per year, and he’s got one of those front loaded salaries…In 2018 he’ll just be making 1 million per year…..but in 2011-12? 10 million is the number.
Here is his capgeek page: http://capgeek.com/players/display.php?id=121
I like that you broke down the list of players by what they will make this year instead of just their annual cap hits like some websites (*cought* NHL.com *cough*) since this will only be a 1 year deal. The real questions is how will next off-season unfold. Weber will again be an RFA while Rinne and Suter will be UFAs. That could get interesting. You would hope the Preds would take care of a few of these contracts during the season.
I blame Poile for being “cheap” (i.e. the ownership) as caps will continue to rise as well as the floors and for Weber hiring an idiot as his agent.