McKenzie on Subban, Bolland contracts

TSN hockey insider Bob McKenzie joined Team 1040 radio Tuesday morning to weigh in on the Stanley Cup Final and a few of the hot contracts issues of the day.

On P.K. Subban and the Montreal Canadiens:

"Well, he may end up discounting a little bit. But, I mean, last time around he had no leverage. Last time around he basically had to take the two year short-term bridge deal that was at less than $3 million a year because the Montreal Canadiens had all the leverage and P.K. Subban didn't want to go to the wall and withhold services and sort of lose his stature in Montreal as arguably, along with Carey Price, the most popular Montreal Canadien right now.

"This time around, all the leverage is in his favor. None of it is with the Montreal Canadiens. He's two years away from being an unrestricted free agent. He's got salary arbitration rights. If he files for salary arbitration, he's going to get a Shea Weber number over $7 million a year on a two-year award. He can take $7 million on an arbitration award and basically walk himself to the door for free agency and the Montreal Canadiens would have nothing to show for it.

"So the Canadiens' alternative is let him go to arbitration, pay him over $7 million and watch him walk out the door for free in two years, or pay him somewhere between $8-$10 million a year right now on a seven or eight year deal. And as much as they want to try to save the money here or there so they can pay some other players, they really don't have a lot of leverage here.

"Where P.K. may take a discount is that he might be within his rights in his new - if you look at Shea Weber's making $10 million a year, really. Ryan Suter's making $10 million a year or thereabouts. He probably could demand over 9 and closer to 10 and if he really wants to get it he probably could. But the Montreal Canadiens are going to say, listen P.K., if you do that we've got to get rid of this guy, we've got to get rid of that guy. It means you're going to be playing with guys that make 5 and $600,000 on your blueline instead of guys that are making 3, 4, 5 or $6 million a year. What's it going to be?

"And that's where players traditionally - that's what Toews and Kane did in Chicago. They basically take a discount that allows a team to build around them."

On UFA Dave Bolland and if the Leafs will sign him:

"Yeah, I think there's probably a price and a number of years that they're interested in and my guess is Bolland is looking to hit a home run. The Leafs are probably looking for a ground rule double and it might be difficult to find a meeting of the minds on this, but not impossible. But I'll be curious to see what happens there.

"Bolland might have better luck with unrestricted free agency with the Florida Panthers and others. Dale Tallon, of course, was in Chicago with David Bolland. Drafted him as a Blackhawk. They're going to be spending some money on July 1 and trying to increase the veteran presence and character on that team where there's so many young guys right now that they probably want to try to make a push this year to get into the playoffs.

"So my guess is David Bolland is going to get a lot more years and a lot more dollars on the open market than he is from the Toronto Maple Leafs. That's not to preclude a deal with Toronto, but it kind of suggests to me it wouldn't surprise me if he ends up going to market."

Source: Team 1040