| Not really racist! | 07-25-2010 06:17 PM |
Quote:
What's Raymond worth? More than you think
By GORDON MCINTYRE SUN, JUL 25 2010 COMMENTS(3) THE WHITE TOWEL
Filed under: raymond, arbitration
Going by radio and online polls, a lot of you don't think Mason Raymond is worth upwards of $3 million a season, but that's the going rate for a 25-goal scorer, let alone one who's up-and-coming.
Raymond's agent, J.P. Barry, will compare the speedy winger when Raymond's arbitration hearing with the Canucks gets underway Monday to players making between $3.5 million to slightly north of $4 million.
The Canucks will likely counter as comparibles players earning slightly below $2 million (forget their qualifying offer of $700,000, that's just a formality the Canucks went through _ Raymond made a base of $760,000 last season and $833,333 with bonuses). Lots of numbers will be trucked out, statistics will be stretched like Spandex on Dustin Byfuglien in an effort to fit scenarios they were never meant to fit.
Let's look at a couple of categories, starting with 25-goal scorers.
Raymond tied with Ryan Kesler and 10 others for 47th in the NHL with 25 goals last season. Kesler makes a bigger contribution and has been rewarded with a $5-million-a-year deal that kicks in this season. Taken as a group the 25-goal club, sans Raymond, average $3.84 million when you include Jonathan Toews' $6.5 million for this season and Kesler's extension; the best the Canucks might hope for in this type of comparison is Brooks Laich in Washington who scored 21, 23 and 25 goals the past three seasons and earns $2.4 million.
And Barry recently got a deal for another client of his, Minnesota's 23-goal scorer Guillaume Latendresse, for $5 million over two years (but the agent says Raymond had a better overall year when categories like penalty killing are included).The Canucks, for their part, could point out that Alex Burrows (28 and 35 goals the past two seasons) at $2 million per and Mikael Samuelsson (30 goals in his Canucks debut) at $2.5 million are more valuable players and that Raymond should be priced somewhere in their ballpark.
Raymond tied Samuelsson with four game-winning goals, behind Daniel Sedin (8), Henrik and Kesler (5 each), but then Jannik Hansen had three himself, for what that's worth. Raymond was third in shots on goal on the Canucks, behind Daniel and Samuelsson, but only ninth in scoring percentage (11.5%) among fulltime players. And he was fifth in ice time and shifts per game, behind, yes, the Sedins, Burrows and Kesler.
He's streaky and infuriates when he keeps going back to the chip-it-in-and-race-to-the-corner move instead of taking the puck to the middle, and he sure shoots at the goalie a lot like he's trying to hit a bull's-eye on the 'tender's chest. But Raymond has also scored some beautiful goals, displaying patience and great puck control: His upside is huge.
We're guessing he gets $3-3.5 million, which the Canucks would then get to choose whether to make it a one- or two-year term _ and how to fit it in under the salaray cap, which they're already over. If you're Mike Gillis (or his lieutenant Laurence Gilman) how would you approach tomorrow's arbitration and, given the Canucks cap-space squeeze, where do you go from there?
| . |
