Now that we're into the later part of July, the only major items on the NHL calendar these days are arbitration hearings and assessing the results of the league's foray into expansion.
The Canucks don't have any players heading to arbitration. And despite the various interested parties we've heard about over the past year, our neighbours in Seattle declined to submit an expansion application.
Here's what the league had to say about the situation:
Chris Daniels of KING5 has been one of the most diligent reporters covering the ins and outs of the Seattle story. Here's his update from Monday:
It sounds like the bottom line is that nothing has really moved forward from a year ago.
Chris Hansen still hasn't secured the NBA franchise that he needs to get the green light to build his SoDo Arena, so Vancouver's Victor Coleman didn't have a realistic arena option that he could attach to his bid. Meanwhile, possible Tukwila and Bellevue arena options remain very much in the planning stages.
The outcome is certainly disappointing for the Canucks and their fans. The idea of having a team just down the road was appealing from a rivalry standpoint, and could have helped with the Canucks' heavy travel burden and could have even helped give Vancouver more of a competitive edge at home, hosting more teams in back-to-back situations.
It certainly looks like the NHL overplayed its hand on realignment two years ago, when it set itself up to bring in two new teams to the Western Conference.
Instead, they've received only the slam-dunk applications from the two cities with new arenas already well underway: Las Vegas and Quebec City.
I drove past the arena-in-progress while I was in Vegas last month and did more research into the application and I think they'll be all right. Their season-ticket drive was a success and they seem to be doing a good job of tapping into expats who have moved to Vegas from other hockey markets. If they can build a solid fan base of locals, the tourists and the corporate sponsors will be icing on the cake.
In Quebec, there's no doubt they'll have the fan base. Their corporate backing from Quebecor also seems strong. But in addition to being in the wrong time zone to fit the NHL's desires, Quebec City is also in the wrong country. The falling Canadian dollar also doesn't do much to boost their case.
But with only two bids for what appear to be two open spots, the league doesn't have a lot of bargaining power at this juncture—and I'm sure the current owners will be chomping at the bit to get their hands on their share of $1 billion in expansion money that won't have to be shared with the players, as it's not considered to be Hockey-Related Revenue.
The NHL has said that the application process will involve more stages before any new franchises are approved, and that timeline hasn't been laid out. But it doesn't sound to me like anything's going to happen in Seattle or any other western city in time to make more West Coast hockey a reality. Too bad.
As for arbitration, Craig Smith and the Nashville Predators followed recent trends by settling on a contract on Monday before their scheduled hearing.
Click here for the other twelve players who are scheduled for hearings, starting with Calgary's Lance Bouma on Wednesday.
Sven Baertschi's Comparables?
There's more in the news this week surrounding Sven Baertschi's negotiation with the Canucks.
In
this piece from Monday, Jim Jamieson at
The Province worries that the Canucks' limited salary-cap space could impede negotiations. Then, Ben Kuzma
argues here that Baertschi's comparables like Emerson Etem and Beau Bennett are being signed to one-year deals for well under $1 million a season. So what's the problem?
We know that Baertschi's looking for more than a one-year contract. Kuzma suggests two years, and I'd agree. That's enough time for both sides to take a good look at each other and for Baertschi to show what he can do now that he's in a fresh situation after leaving the Calgary Flames.
I would think that we'll see Baertschi's deal come in at a reasonably conservative number once the contract is finally complete.
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