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Nick Spaling Arbitration Figures Released

July 30, 2014, 10:13 AM ET [210 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
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Just a quick update on Nick Spaling's arbitration situation:






The way these things work is the player submits a figure that is over the top and the team low balls them. Usually an award somewhere in the middle is given.

In this case anything over 2M for Spaling is an overpayment.

Making this arbitration hearing unique is the fact that this player has not played a single game for the Penguins yet. The dynamic of the Penguins brass arguing in an arbitration hearing on why Spaling isn't worth what he is asking for will probably bear one question from the arbitrator, why did you just trade for this player?

In an offseason which has seen the Penguins make some really nice value signings for their bottom 6, it appears as though Spaling will break that trend.

I honestly believe the Penguins would have been better off trading Neal for Hornqvist straight up and not including Spaling than overpaying a bottom 6 forward of his ilk.

David Booth, Peter Mueller, Lee Stempniak, Brian Gibbons, David Moss, Mike Santorelli, Patrick Eaves and Daniel Winnik are all bottom 6 forward options that are under 1.5M and are more appealing to me than Nick Spaling.

The ship has sailed on those players and the Penguins are left taking a risk on a player who's sample size hasn't been overly impressive and will come in at a higher cost.


Here is what Dirk Hoag, found of the On the Forecheck Predators blog, had to say about Nick Spaling's asking price:







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