The NHL arbitrator came to a decision on Thursday. Given the task of choosing a fair salary for Kyle Wellwood between the $1 million offer tabled by the Canucks and a number proposed by Wellwood and his agent Mike Liut that was slightly below the Canucks’ $1.57 million limit, the judge awarded him $1.2 million for one year of service.
From calculating the average salary of the 10 players closest to him in points per game (as I did in my previous post), the salary awarded would have been $1.13 million, a difference of only $70,000. Surely this supports my hypothesis that the salary awarded by an arbitrator is based on the market value of players with similar production. With this in mind, perhaps the entire process of arbitration, which is often painted with a negative brush as it forces teams to denigrate their players in a demoralizing fashion, is a waste of time and energy.
But no, it is good for the public to know and believe that more goes into a determination of salary than just stats. Unless the arbitrators would be willing to perform an independent study on each player in question, the streamlined process will not be going anywhere in the near future.
Wellwood’s Salary is Confirmed
By Omar R, Friday, July 31, 2009, 6:00 AM | 1.2 Million, Kyle Wellwood, Salary Arbitration, Vancouver Canucks | 1 comments »
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Nice call!
Impressive stats and good judgement on the arbitrators method ;)
What is your gut feeling... are NHL players (like Premiership footballers) hugely overpaid in general?
If the arbitrators continue to use this 'average' method to work out fair pay it will take decades before salaries drop to reasonable levels...
And if you have a solution for NHL players... then you can start working on what to do with the bankers' bonuses and salaries?!?!