Pressing demand for significant changes to NHL arbitration!

Earlier today, it was revealed that the Toronto Maple Leafs and goaltender Ilya Samsonov are $2.5 million apart in salary arbitration filings.

Samsonov, who is coming off a one-year, $1.8 million deal he signed with Toronto in July of 2022, filed at $4.9 million while the Maple Leafs submitted at $2.4 million, with a hearing scheduled for Friday. The two sides can reach a contract outside of the arbitration process until the hearing begins on Friday.

With the significant gap in negotiations, TSN’s Gord Miller strongly suggests that the NHL should opt for a baseball-style “final offer” arbitration.

“Each side submits a number, the arbitrator chooses one. That stops the “low ball/high ball” positions.”

The NHL, unlike the MLB, does not have final offer arbitration whereby an arbitrator is bound to pick one side’s proposal or the other.

Miller believes it is time to use the final offer arbitration in the NHL. Do you agree with him?

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