Habs News: Scherbak Signed, Baruchel is Awesome, and Arbitration Dates Loom

[RGM81]

All kinds of fun off-season notes for everybody in Habsville to discuss...

1st round pick Nikita Scherbak has signed his three-year entry level deal: http://canadiens.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=726753

Actor Jay Baruchel is awesome, and hasn't forgotten Saku Koivu either: http://canadiens.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=726593

Arbitration hearing for PK Subban is only ten days away on August 1st, while Lars Eller will have his on Friday, July 25th, if no new deal is signed before then.

We still don't know what the TV situation is going to look like.

I'm told by a couple sources that Carey Price is in fact here in Kelowna.

Discuss away. :)

[Pheebs888]

I soooooooo want PK to sign already i'm close to having nightmares about his arbitration hearing!

Really looking forward to training camp to see what our first pick can do :)

Played nhl 14 today and when i saw number 26 on the ice i got a bit sad i'll admit :(

[RGM81]

Eller's arbitration case avoided as he's signed a 4-year, $14M deal.

PK, you're up next!

[JVW]

I am really happy to see Eller signed for 4 years. At $2.5, 2.5, 4.25, and 4.75, the deal makes sense. (Especially since the cap max will be going up and the last two years are UFA years.) Plekanec is my favourite player. However, I see Eller taking over for Pleks in the future. Eller is a big centre who uses his size fighting for the puck and can play both ends of the rink. Good to see he will be around.

On a side note...I have to laugh at all the people who commented on the other sports boards about his looking for $3.1 mil and Bergevin offering "$1.65 mil and then he gets an average of $3.5 mil. So many people did not read enough (mind you...most articles did not contain the following point...) that the offer was for one year if the two sides actually went to arbitration.

Now for Subban! Honestly, I have no idea what he will be signed for! On one side I would like to see him signed for 8 years. On the other, that is a really long time and things can go wrong. I think he deserves more than Phaneuf ($7 million), but I don't want to see the contract get so large that we cannot afford other big players down the road.

[RGM81]

Great comment above and I heartily agree.

The last two years of Eller's deal are UFA years, so they had to take into account "open market value" when making that assessment. Does it make the salary hit jump substantially? Yes. But they're banking on Eller showing that he can be a prime-time player in the next 2-4 years. If all goes well, it'll stack up right next to Pacioretty's deal as a tremendous bargain.

Saw a great post last month by a member of the Montreal media - if Phaneuf is getting $7M then PK deserves $20M!

[Dergula]

Phaneuf is not worth 7M sadly.