Stralman arbitration hearing set for 7/28
 

With these players as Stralman's stat comparables:

Matt Carle PHI 80 6 29 35 19
Ed Jovanovski PHO 66 10 24 34 -12
Andrei Markov MON 45 6 28 34 11
Anton Stralman COB 73 6 28 34 -17
MA Bergeron MON 60 13 21 34 -7
C. Colaiacovo STL 67 7 25 32 8
D. Seidenberg BOS 79 4 28 32 6
Fedor Tyutin COB 80 6 26 32 -7
Dion Phaneuf TOR 81 12 20 32 1
JM Liles COL 59 6 25 31 -2
Tom Gilbert EDM 82 5 26 31 -10

What do we expect the arbitration salary to be?

Team says: $5 mil over 2 years
Stralman's agent says: 4 mil/1 yr or 7.5 mil / 2 yrs

arbitrator says: 7mil over 2 years or 3.5mil for 1 yr (speculation)

what do WE say?

Thanks for your time and good luck with your new team.

I'd expect the team to say $4m/2 yrs.

I'd prefer $3m/yr, two years, if it comes to that. Higher than that and I send Howson a "hon, you feelin' okay?" card.

Oof, he's going to be more expensive than I thought

I think Stralman at the most is worth 1.7-1.9 million. Sure he can score some on the powerplay but his defensive game is awful. He isn't coming back to Columbus because he isn't worth whatever he is probably wanting. I'm going to guess he is asking between Klesla and Commodore money and he's worth only half of that.


I wonder if Howson is going to have any interest in Campbell. He will be perfect for the new type of style the coaches are going to want to play. He will be had for cheap most likely and if Howson can send Commodore over there for him that would only be adding 3ish million worth of salary.

If he asks for "between klesla and commodore money" we should get him an appointment with a shrink and the first ticket out of town

I say "context, please". Stats only tell some of the story. And that the "team offer" in your scenario is already too high. And I like Anton.

Have to look at RFA years/contracts when you're hunting for comparables for Stralman. What most of those players are making right now won't be allowed as evidence.

I don't think Stralman brings anywhere near $3.5 mil in performance to the negotiating table.

so lets say the team's number is 4mil/2 yrs

stralman's agent's number is 6mil/2 years (which I don't think is out of this world for him to at least ASK for)

arbitrator says $5mil/2yrs (2.5 per)

I'd love if we paid less, but at this point, I have to imagine Howson has offered him 2mil per and gotten shot down. I could live with 2.5per/2 yrs. I could be way off, but I'm not surprised at all if he's awarded $3mil per.

i just think it'll be interesting

**NOTE: I'm not extremely resourceful as it relates to searching stats on the internet--can anyone determine if Stralman is the highest scoring CBJ d-man of all time? I know Berard topped out at 32pts.

Turns out I found it: 2002-03 Jaroslav Spacek 45

Stralman is T-2nd (Hainsey+Tyutin) highest scoring CBJ d-man all-time to Spaco

If it's north of $2 million per year, I think Howson should say "sorry, we're going to go with Clitsome/Moore/Savard."

Stralman is nice, but he's a PP specialist who should log about 15 minutes a night. If Howson is good, he'll make that -17 stand out showing Stralman's deficiency in his own zone.

Stralman's tough to find comparables for around his age/experience/offensive impact. If you go with points (and rank on the team), you're looking at the likes of Kyle Quincey ($3.0 million) and Alex Goligoski ($1.5 million in 10/11, $2.75 million in 11/12). Quincey, however, is in the top three in most positive categories (TOI in all situations, ESGF, PPGF, takeaways, blocked shots, hits, etc.) on his team, and he earned his contract after two strong seasons. Goligoski is the closest to Stralman in terms of overall impact and role on his team, but he earned his contract after a worse (overall) 08/09 season.

Based on the numbers for players I didn't look at too closely (noted age, team rank in points and TOI, and salary), as well as the ones above, I'd say a best-case scenario is $1.4 million, and a worst-case scenario is $2.5 million.

This

My guess is NO, nor will any other GM. That contract is rediculous!

Yeah, honestly I'd let him walk and go with Clitsome no matter the outcome. But no to Savard. Dude has some work to do.

x2

Stralman brings precious skill to a blueline that has very little of it. People are understating Stralman's importance to the power play, not to mention throwing out a stat that completely ignores his biggest contribution to the team. (Heaven forbid we dress anyone who isn't an enforcer).

We tried handing the power play to a rookie in 08-09. It was a complete flop. Seeing Moore and Savard getting mentioned as Stalmans replacement in 10-11 is cringe inducing. Assuming the numbers aren't too far north of 2.25 million, I'm sure he'll be brought back.

Move another dman and we'll talk about Stralman again, PP or no. He's a 3rd pairing dman playing 20 minutes a night racking up a lot of minus's.

Although I can't recall every shift Stralman has played since being a Blue Jacket I do recall seeing him outskilled by forwards more than I would like. He does have skill, but most of that skill is best served on the point during power plays. His signing comes down to dollars, pure and simple.

I seem to recall a similar thread in which people hated Hainsey because he wasn't a #1 defenseman and thus wasn't perfect. How did our power play work out the year after that?

Here's a hint: it was the worst in the league, with an all-time low of nine point six percent.

Let's not be so quick to throw folks out, 'mkay?

Our PP% went from 14.8% to 12.7%. Which translated to about a goal every 7 games. Grats on taking the low point out of a year to try and justify a borderline 3/4 for 4.5 million.

What Stralman gave us was another player we could run on the 1st or 2nd unit. It has value, but so did his -16 on the road as well.

We increased our PP% by 5.5% and lost 7 spots in the standings. Awesome.

And this is all Stralman's fault?

I'm on record saying don't overpay Anton, but this stat? Do we have causal evidence?

Not sure why people are suddenly forgotten just how little offense this team has. Last year was ugly, but it would have been even uglier if Stralman wasn't there. Do people really want to go back to Tyutin getting 3:00 of PPTOI a game over 500,000 dollars?

And I'm not sure why you keep throwing out his Plus/Minus. He's never going to win the Norris Trophy, but the -16 is as much a reflection on the disaster that 09-10 was for the team as it is on Stralman.

Of course it is. He's the backup scapegoat. Klesla was injured, so you can't blame him.

It certainly was, Sam, but don't forget that the defense was even worse than the offense. Not all of that blame can be placed on Mason, which is why most of us continue to hope for some upgrades on the blueline.