Monday's signing of defenseman Mike Weber leaves the Sabres with three unsigned restricted free agents in defensemen Andrej Sekera and Marc-Andre Gragnani, as well as goaltender Jhonas Enroth. Players have until 5 p.m. today to file for salary arbitration and Sekera's agent, Allan Walsh, has just tweeted this his client, in fact, is going to go the arbitration route.
Walsh followed that announcement with another tweet that read: "Filing for arbitration on Sekera is a continuation of the process in the CBA as both sides continue to negotiate a longer term contract."
Sekera made $1.25 million last year in the final year of a two-year, $2 million deal and had a cap hit of $1 million. Given the fact the Sabres just gave Weber a raise from $550,000 to $900,000 -- plus a $100,000 signing bonus -- Sekera is obviously going to want more than simply his qualifying offer of last year's $1,250,000. Not to mention the big bucks Buffalo just paid to Christian Ehrhoff.
Sekera, 25, scored three goals in 76 games last season whils posting career highs in assists (26), points (29) and plus-minus (+11). But he played in only two games in the playoffs due to an upper-body injury.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
tagged
NHL free agency | Sabres
