Playing With Fire - LaRose and Arbitration

by Bob Wage on Jul 6, 2008 12:54 AM EDT

Chad LaRose filed for salary arbitration on Saturday with 14 other players in the NHL. Apparently, LaRose is unhappy with the qualifying offer that the Canes submitted to him.

The pesky forward earned 500K last season, so the qualifying offer would put him at 550K for this year. (The qualifying offer includes a mandatory 10% raise.) Carolina General Manager, Jim Rutherford has stated several times that the budget is tight and the team does not have much more to give LaRose.

If the arbitration award ends up being significantly higher than 550K, then the Canes could walk away from the award and the player, leaving Chad as an unrestricted free agent. The big question at that time will be, is LaRose worth any more than 550K to any other team in the NHL?

It wouldn't be the first time that a player priced themselves out of the market. A couple of years ago, David Tanabe took the Boston Bruins to arbitration and won a nice contract award. But the Bruins walked away from it, and Tanabe was unemployed for a bit before the Canes signed him to a much lower deal than the arbitration amount, and probably lower than what the Bruins had offered originally.

Chad should be very careful because he could be playing with fire by pushing for his maximum value. He certainly doesn't want to burn any bridges with the Canes during this cumbersome process.

If the price gets too high for LaRose, there are plenty of other "pesky forwards" out there who are still looking for a home from which the Canes could choose. We will take a look at some of those later this week.

I'm on the last day of my vacation, (still out of town), but I will be returning in the evening and it will be back to normal again around here soon. The prospects are in town for the prospect camp this week, so we will be reviewing that next.

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Comments

Don’t get me wrong, I like Rosie….

But.

He hasn’t really brought anything. Nothing spectacular. Nothing electric. Nothing even much on the score sheet. What’s he going to get elsewhere? A fourth-line grinder gig worth maybe 500k.

by Mojo on Jul 6, 2008 6:44 AM EDT reply actions

Hasn’t really brought anything….
Maybe we should all take a step off our respective fan positions when looking at LaRose (One of my favorites). Big picture review over his three NHL seasons shows a definite improvement in point production. Sure he’s only got 1 complete season under his belt 80 games played in 06-07 generated 18 points (49 GP in 05-06, 80 GP 06-07, 58 GP 07-08), but he out performed that last year (23 points) after recovering from a fracture.
So realistically, if I were shopping the “pesky forward” market, I would consider.. Has he been 100% since returning from his injury? Does his upside show him leaning toward Briere potential or more a chaotic element on the ice? Has he peaked out in three seasons?? Arbitration already?
Briere he’s not (too few clutch goals & shots at this point)- he still creates opportunities for his line mates and solid puck pressure on his forecheck especially for a smaller center.
What other issues will the arbitrators review? Similarity in market value??
OK here’s an example….I looked at NHL Centers-points production stats last season to see where he rated in this area. Chad was 109th in points production last season in the NHL. Jeff Hamilton was 107th, Stu Barnes from Dallas 108th, and Steve Ott also of Dallas 110th. So what does this mean in $$ for Rosie?? I’ll be bold (not to aggravate anyone….especially Chad) and say he should be somewhere around $800-900K per season. Based on the stats from last year this is the range of player salaries, LaRose performs in: Last year Hamilton made 800K, Barnes got 900K and Ott 800K.
So back to shopping for pesky forwards. If you were Jim Rutherford what would you do here? Can you continue to be conservative with the future talent of this team and risk loosing a player based on another 250-300K per season?
While JR is rock solid at weighing options I hope he doesn’t make a mistake on this one. What do the Canes stand to loose if they don’t sign Rosie through all this??
Here’s my parting shot: Chad LaRose has played 187 games and produced 54 points in his first 3 NHL seasons, numbers that took Daniel Briere 4 NHL seasons to surpass. In all fairness- Briere only played 5 games in his first season with Phoenix.

by Eman on Jul 6, 2008 2:07 PM EDT reply actions

Maybe it’s personal for me to separate this about LaRose. I can’t forget after returning from his broken leg in those last 5 games with half the ice time of the other forwards he scored 6 points and a hat trick. He brought fire to this team that to me has it’s rewards. I think he is worth at least 800k to 1 million. 500k is an insult as far as I’m concerned.

by Caroniac on Jul 6, 2008 2:45 PM EDT reply actions

We need Rosy back, someone has to man the ipod with Colsey gone. If you ever wonder what LaRose can bring to a game, pop in game 7 of the Cup finals…..I remember screaming for LaRose to replace Big Joe, thank goodness Lavi got that right, though that year he pushed all the right buttons.

by Swenk on Jul 6, 2008 3:35 PM EDT reply actions