New York Islanders Calvin de Haan Files For Salary Arbitration

In filing for arbitration New York Islanders defenseman Calvin de Haan can let an arbitrator do Garth’s work for him and decide what de Haan is actually worth.

Calvin de Haan enters the 2017 offseason as the only restricted free agent on the New York Islanders books. Without a deal yet, de Haan was able to file for arbitration and have and arbiter decide his worth.

Not all RFA’s get the option of filing for arbitration. There are certain criteria to be met in order to be able to get a third party to decide what you as a player should be paid.

According to the NHL CBA, a player who signed their ELC (Entry Level Contract) at the age of 20 like de Haan did back on May 2nd, 2010*, and has four years of professional experience can be eligible for arbitration.

*Calvin de Haan turned 20 on May 9th 2010, but the NHL considers the players “age” to be his age as of September 15th of the year he signed his ELC. (See article 12.1 (c)).

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What Happens From Here?

From here the New York Islanders and de Haan can continue to negotiate as they were. Both sides can come to an agreement well before the arbitrator is set to rule on the case.

If they do come to some sort of agreement the case is no longer sent to an arbitrator and both continue down their merry little way.

The two can figure out a deal well into arbitration. But once a verdict has been reached the team has two options. Either accept the terms of the deal or walk away. At which point de Haan would become an unrestricted free agent.

Let’s just assume that last part won’t happen. It seems crazy that Garth would go through all this trouble to keep him on the roster through the expansion draft if he was alright with letting him walk in arbitration.

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When it comes to making their case both the player and the team can only use certain points of information, as set out in Article 12.9 (g)(ii).

A players stats (both offensive and defensive), his injury history, his “contribution” in winning or losing games, etc. Information they can’t not use in arbitration are qualifying offers, any negotiation history between the player and the club, amongst other things.

What’s To Come

Hopefully, this doesn’t actually go through arbitration. Hopefully, the Islanders and de Haan’s camp can reach a deal before it ever gets to that point.

I just don’t like the elephant in the room after one of these cases is settled. It’s just not healthy for that player to hear his team talk him down. Trust me that’ll happen.

The first news that’s going to break on this topic is just how much Calvin de Haan is asking. It’s probably going to be something just north of or right at $5m. Just remember that this is a negotiation. You start high. Just like the team is going to start low. Probably along the lines of $2.5 million.

And then behind closed doors, the team will try to pick apart his stats, his intangibles in an effort to get the price down. Its a business and these things happen in business. But egos can be fragile. Some can deal with it well. Look at Mike Hoffman, he’s gone through arbitration twice. Some take slights from their GMs personally and have a hard time shaking it.

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Best case scenario this doesn’t go the full distance and we get a resolution well before the arbitrator is set to rule. With a summer already filled with arena drama and the whole JT extension, we don’t need de Haan arbitration drama to compound things.