Minnesota Wild: Schroeder’s Arbitration Hearing Scheduled

It was announced yesterday that if the Minnesota Wild cannot come to terms with restricted free-agent Jordan Schroeder the two sides will face a player-initiated arbitration hearing on the 27th of July.  The Wild will press hard to sign Schroeder before that, but if it does come to a hearing it could be interesting for both sides.

The Minnesota Wild have still have two major restricted free-agents left to sign.  Defensman Mathew Dumba is still in the process of negotiating what is expected to be a significant pay raise in his first contract after his entry-level deal.  The other player is four-season NHL veteran Jordan Schroeder, who has elected to file for a salary arbitration hearing in order to force the Wild to sign him to a higher number than has been offered.  The situation on the surface seems routine, but a closer look shows that this could be an interesting display if a hearing actually happens.

Yesterday it was announced that Schroeder will face his hearing later this month on the 27th of July.  As mentioned before this may or may not happen, because historically the Wild like all other clubs in the NHL prefers to keep negotiations away from arbitration and sign the player before the hearing.

A hearing can be messy as both the team and the player will plead their cases before the arbitrator for what the player’s salary number should be.  Typically, the player will sell themselves high. and the team will sell the player low.  This makes for an environment where the player’s performance has to be slammed by the team and can be very damaging to the relationship going forward.  So teams would rather get a deal done than face disenfranchising a player by strongly criticizing their play.

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If Schroeder goes to arbitration the rules under the CBA for the hearing allow for both sides to present evidence that would theoretically go into a normal contract negotiation.  According to thescore.com typical evidence can include:

•The number of games played and a player’s injury history

• “Overall performance” (including NHL “official statistics”)

•Length of service of the player to the club or in the NHL

•”The overall contribution of the Player to the competitive success or failure of his club in the preceding season”

•”Any special qualities of leadership or public appeal”

•The overall performance of alleged comparable players

•The compensation of any comparable players that have been formally introduced as a comparable

As you can see the in addition to pure hockey performance there are also some intangibles like leadership and public appeal.  Additionally, the player’s contribution to the team is also taken into account.

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If Schroeder makes it to a hearing it could be a complicated situation where the club has a very strong case.  The issue for Schroeder is his performance.  In NHL action he could only muster four points in 26 games last season, but in AHL action he did better 34 points in 40 games.  Still the Wild will most likely point to the fact that Schroeder has been given lots of chances to succeed at the NHL level but come up short.  He does have some good numbers in the AHL, so thus the Wild will argue he should be paid at a level commensurate with a good AHL player somewhere in the neighborhood of $700,000 to $800,000 annually.

Schroeder’s side will most likely use more of the other factors outside of performance to get him a better number than what the club is offering.  As a former Gopher standout he’s popular with the Wild fans, and he also has shown enough time in the NHL and the club to garner a higher salary than players like Mike Reily who makes $925,000 annually.  His AHL stats will also work to his advantage as he is coming off his best point per game total in his seven AHL seasons.

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It’s hard to say which side will come out on top in this hearing…if it happens.  Both sides have strong arguments, but in the end the result will be that Schroeder will sign with the Wild.  The big issue will be the effect on the Wild’s bottom-line and their ability to make any more moves this summer.  So that’s why getting him signed to a cap friendly number is important and the Wild will be pushing hard all the way till the 27th to do just that.