Saturday Habs Links: Arbitration Vexation

• The always astute Elliotte Friedman says there’s a reason why teams and players alike avoid arbitration and suggests that both Bergevin and Subban are way out of their comfort zone with this arbitration hearing.
• Yahoo’s Greg Wyshynski comes up with a (surprisingly) balanced look at the negotiation history between Bergevin and Subban over the years and how they can lock him up if they approach it right (hint it involves being Adam Wainwright to Subban’s Derek Jeter).
• Travis Hughes thinks that the Habs may irrevocably damage their relationship with P.K. and thinks that P.K. could either demand a trade or pursue free agency in two years if P.K.’s arbitration wounds don’t heal.
• Our own Andrew Berkshire pleads with Marc Bergevin to just fix this before it leads to a franchise altering mistake.
• If things don’t work out with Montreal, Edmonton should be more than willing to pounce on Subban says the Edmonton Journal’s Jonathan Willis. Willis suggests a package of “Schultz, Nail Yakupov and, say, the 2015 first round pick”. I love this kind of ridiculous talk.
• From the odd files: Police busted up this Montreal based meth ring that produced Habs stamped drugs.
• Speaking of rings, Yvon Lambert has lost his 1976 Stanley Cup ring.

Around the NHL

• I saw Brad Marchand in Halifax yesterday and I later found out he’s in Halifax for a celebrity hockey tournament honouring the life of Jordan Boyd, a Bathurst Titan hopeful who tragically died of cardiac arrest at a Titan training camp in August 2013.
• Adam Gretz has a nice little history of the Quebec Nordiques including a couple of little nods to the Canadiens.
• The Jets signed T.J. Galiardi to a one year deal, the Wild signed Justin Falk, and the Sens agreed to a three year deal with Robin Lehner.
• The Ducks have announced plans to retire Teemu Selanne’s number 8 when the Ducks host the Jets on January 11th. It’ll be the first number that the Ducks have retired in franchise history.