He's getting 3 plus if it gets to the hearing I have zero doubts. The RFA's with similar single season stat lines last season got paid over 3, sometimes over 5 and he's also not coming off of his ELC like some of those.
I can't remember if arbitrators care about hits, but Jake has those too
I think you're only allowed to use the previous years comparables, but I could be wrong, but I think these are the RFA winger comps Jakes
0.52ppg):
Konecny: 49 points in 82 (0.60ppg), 6 x $5.5m
Fiala: 39 points in 83 games (
0.47ppg),
2 x $3.0m
Buchnevich: 38 points in 64 games (0.59ppg) 2 x $3.25m
Kapanen: 44 points in 78 games (
0.56ppg) 3 x
$3.2m
Johnsson: 43 in 73 games (0.59ppg) 4 x $3.4m
Compher: 32 points in 66 games (
0.48ppg) 4 x
$3.5m
I don't remember all that goes into an arbitration case and which party gets to choose the term, but I imagine Virtanen's agent sees all these guys with at least 2 year deals, and at least $6m. I think they'd push for 2. Not sure if they can though. With the comparables above I think we'll see an award of:
1-year $3.1m