Holtby heading to arbitration

Braden Holtby is certainly one of the top goalies in the NHL today.  And he deserves to be paid.

But his blades may be a little uneven as it appears that Braden and his camp are going a little crazy.

Negotiation tactic?  Probably.

Holtby earned $1.85M last season against the cap and he definitely has earned a raise.  But it appears that his camp is now asking for $8, or only 500k less than King Henrik is earning.

Are Holtby and the camp really that far apart heading into arbitration?  According to the Washington Post, they were a little bit closer:

The Capitals’ offer to Holtby — the 25-year-old who tied franchise records for games played, wins and shutouts last season and finished fourth in Vezina Trophy voting — has maxed in the mid-$5 million range, while Holtby’s team has countered around $1 million higher, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation.

“I think we’ve made an aggressive offer with Holtby, hoping to get it done sooner than later,” MacLellan said. “I like what we’ve offered. We’ve offered a term deal with a good salary. The total dollars is pretty significant. Unfortunately, I guess you play it out. If you’ve got to go to arb, you’ve got to go to arb. It’s part of the process.”

So the reality is that Holtby will receive a nice raise, but probably end up in $6-$6.5M per year range.  The bigger negotiating point may be the contract term.  Right now, Holtby is set to become a UFA in 2 years.

And that price is probably fair according to Puck Daddy:

And that would be a hefty raise from $1.85 million per-year. The $6 million number is completely reasonable for Holtby. The story notes comparables as Semyon Varlamov ($5.9 million per-year), Sergei Bobrovsky ($7.425 million per-year) and Carey Price ($6.5 million per-year) from when they signed their contracts.

Before this season, Holtby had never played more than 48 games in an NHL season. That year (2013-14) he had a 2.85 goals against average and .915 save percentage. The year before he had a 2.58 GAA and .920 save percentage in 36 games.

But with Holtby, it’s more about signing him for potential based off last season where he played an NHL-high 73 games and had a 2.22 goals against average and .923 save percentage.

In the playoffs he was an intimidating, woolly, bearded beast who had a 1.71 goals against average and .944 save percentage for the Caps in 13 games.

Image courtesy of Jennifer Griggs.