The need for an arbiter to decide the value of Brandon Dubinsky to the New York Rangers has arrived today as the two sides could not come to that agreement without one. According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post the contract that will come out of that ruling will be for one season with the Rangers submitting a contract request of $2.8 million while Dubinsky has requested a salary of $4.6 million.
The Rangers have elected to go for a one-year salary award in today's arbitration hearing in Toronto with Brandon Dubinsky, The Post has learned.The fact that the Rangers chose the one-year option will keep Dubinsky as a restricted free agent again next summer. The positive in that is it gives the two sides another year to work on a long-term contract to keep Dubinsky as a Blueshirt, but it also sets up another potentially contentious summer of negotiations. The move to not take the two-year verdict could signal that the two sides were not as far apart as we might think, or is just simply a leverage move to keep him under control for the next negotiation round.
Sources with knowledge of the briefs submitted on behalf of the 25-year-old winger and on behalf of the club have told The Post that Dubinsky has requested a contract worth $4.6 million while the Rangers have come in at $2.8 million.
The fact
that there is a wide gap between the two requests is part of the business of
shooting for the best for their particular side. Once it gets to this point the Rangers are
going to aim very low while Dubinsky is going to be on the high end of his
value, with the arbiter allowed to choose any number within the two bounds
requested. To see the Rangers request a
mere $2.8 million is still somewhat shocking since the value is clearly a
significant amount higher than that, but that is part of the business side of
this. To their “credit” the Rangers seem
well aware that the ruling is more likely to come out in Dubinsky’s favor in
terms of the gap between the two sides requests.
Both sides expect Dubinsky, who will still owe one more season to the Rangers as a restricted free agent at the conclusion of this year, to gain an arbitration-directed salary of between $3.8 million and $4.4 million.
If
the request was for a one-year award, then I would predict that Dubinsky comes
out with $3.9 million as his salary for the 2011-12 season.
Later this morning I will have more thoughts on the fact that it even came to this and if either side can truly win from it coming to this.
