Pavel Zacha opts for Salary Arbitration, but that may not be that big of a deal

The NHL and NHLPA announced their list of players who opted for Salary Arbitration today, and it appears that recently acquired forward Pavel Zacha is on that list:

Hearings for Arbitration begin next Wednesday and go until August 11th.

While normally this is often thought of as a last resort for player and for team in trying to come to terms with a number that works out for both parties, arbitration has ultimately ensured throughout the years that whatever it is that both parties are running into may be something ultimately fairly trivial, and there are many success stories of the practice; with recent examples such as Nate Schmidt, Devon Toews (man that one was a success story, good gravy), and Mackenzie Weegar. Further, over the past couple of years it seems it’s largely been a way for both parties to just forget about whatever else is going on around them and just talk: in 2020, all arbitration cases that were filed reached agreements, and in 2021, all arbitration cases filed didn’t even need to go to the hearings; they all were signed beforehand. Further, it seems like Don Sweeney and company seem quite high on Zacha, Zacha’s high on being a Bruin, and both sides would like him to be around for the forseeable future...it may in fact just be something small.

So unless Zacha gets signed in the meantime, we’ll wait for the hearings to begin, and hope both sides can come to a good place, and a good number.