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Home , 2007 NHL Entry Draft, Josh Bailey, Lars Eller, Montreal Canadiens, Patrik Berglund

IN THE MATTER OF SALARY ARBITRATION

BETWEEN:

LARS ELLER

(“THE PLAYER”)

-AND-

THE CANADIENS

(“THE TEAM”)

THE PLAYER’S BRIEF

TEAM 18

Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION ...... 3

II. OVERVIEW ...... 3

A. Versatility ...... 3

B. Contribution to Team Success ...... 5

III. VALID COMPARABLE PLAYERS ...... 6

A. Josh Bailey, ...... 6

B. , St. Louis Blues...... 8

IV. CONCLUSION...... 10

2 I. INTRODUCTION

This is a matter of salary compensation arbitration between and the Montreal

Canadiens pursuant to Article 12 of the 2014 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the

National Hockey League and Players’ Association. This brief will first provide a general overview of Mr. Eller as a player, and then analyze Mr. Eller’s value in comparison with two other NHL forwards: Josh Bailey of the New York Islanders and Patrik

Berglund of the St. Louis Blues. Mr. Eller is an important part of the Canadiens’ organization, and his versatility, playoff performance, and contribution to team success are all factors that add to his value and support an award above the $3.5 million midpoint figure. After weighing the positives and negatives of a player of Mr. Eller’s caliber, and comparing him to the appropriate players, this brief will take the position that Mr. Eller is entitled to an award in the neighbourhood of $3.6 million per season.

II. OVERVIEW

Mr. Eller was drafted 13th overall by the St. Louis Blues in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. He was the highest ever drafted Danish-born player in NHL history. After playing the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons in , he moved to and made his NHL debut for the

Blues. He joined the Canadiens in 2010, in a trade that sent him and forward Ian Schultz to

Montreal in exchange for Jaroslav Halák.1

A. Versatility

Mr. Eller has become an increasingly valuable part of the organization since he joined the club in 2010. He has shown growing confidence in his abilities

1 www..com/ice/news

3 as a shutdown centerman while being also able to contribute on the offensive side of the game from time to time. Essentially, Mr. Eller is one of the premier shutdown centers in the league with an offensive potential that has yet to be fully realized.

Mr. Eller’s value to the Canadiens is reflected in his time on ice per game, as his average has risen drastically since he joined the Canadiens to his platform year. In his first year with the

Canadiens he averaged just 11:08 minutes of total ice time per game and saw this increase to

15:18 minutes in 2011-2012.2 It stayed relatively the same in the lockout-shortened season and this past year during his platform year, Mr. Eller played an average of 15:57 minutes per game.3

Mr. Eller’s role as a defensive specialist has also been critical to the club’s success.

During his platform year, Mr. Eller won 53.2 percent of all the face offs he took which places him first on the team among the centermen, and in the top 50 among all regular centermen in the league.4 He is also used frequently for the team’s defensive zone draws against the opposing team’s top lines. Evidently, the team trusts him enough to use his high level of hockey IQ and defensive abilities in order to gain possession of the puck in his own end while fending off fore- checkers and making smart plays to get the puck out. Additionally, Mr. Eller is also used on the

Canadiens’ killing unit and has seen a drastic increase in penalty killing ice time from an average of 0:05 seconds from when he first arrived in Montreal to 1:24 minutes this past year.5 It is evident that Mr. Eller is highly regarded by the team as a defensive specialist.

Over his career and time with the Canadiens, Mr. Eller has demonstrated his versatility as a two way forward by being able to contribute offensively. Although his platform year was not his best in terms of showing his offensive ability he still managed to score a total of 12 goals and

2 www.nhl.com/ice/playersplits 3 Ibid. 4 www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats 5 Supra, note 1.

4 14 assists over a 77 game span for a total of 26 points.6 It is also noteworthy that 81 percent of his points were scored while playing at even strength and that he averages approximately a minute per game on the power play.7 Additionally, Mr. Eller has shown in the past that he is capable of a greater offensive output. This is evidenced by the fact that during the lockout- shortened season in 2013, Mr. Eller scored 8 goals and 22 assists for a total of 30 points over a

46 game span.8 He averaged .65 points per game that year. This demonstrates that he has offensive potential which has yet to be fully realized, as he is still a developing 25-year-old centerman about to enter the fifth full season of his NHL career. Regardless, throughout his career, Mr. Eller has scored an average of .36 points per game,9 meaning that he is able to consistently produce at least 25 to 30 points over a full 82 game season, while being able to play tough defensive minutes against the opposing team’s best players. Mr, Eller’s abilities are a highly regarded commodity around the league, and we believe that he has earned $3.6 million per year.

B. Contribution to Team Success

Mr. Eller is a vital component to the Montreal Canadiens overall team success. This is evidenced by the fact that over 25 playoff games with the Canadiens, Mr. Eller has scored 5 goals and 10 assists for a total of 15 points.10 This is an average of 0.6 points per game and demonstrates that Mr. Eller is able to eleveate his game when winning or losing matter the most.

Additionally, during his platform year, Mr. Eller scored at a .76 point per game average in the playoffs by accumulating 13 points in 17 games, placing him second on the team just behind P.K

6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 Supra, note 3. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid.

5 Subban.11 Also, 11 of these 17 points were scored at even strength, while the other 2 points were scored while Mr. Eller was playing on the penalty kill.12 Mr. Eller was also second on the team in the plus-minus category with an impressive +6 while taking on tough defensive assignments throughout the playoffs. Evidently, the Montreal Canadiens rely heavily on the play of Mr. Eller when the team needs him the most. The team was highly successful with him in the lineup as Mr.

Eller utilized his two-way play throughout the playoffs and helped propel the team to 6 games against the in the Eastern Conference Finals.

III. VALID COMPARABLE PLAYERS

A. Josh Bailey, New York Islanders

During the summer of 2013, Josh Bailey signed a five-year contract extension with the

New York Islanders worth an annual average value of $3.3 million.13 Although Mr. Bailey became an NHL regular two years prior to Mr. Eller, both are 25 years of age, and similarly sized, defensive-minded forwards. Both Mr. Bailey and Mr. Eller were drafted in the first round of the NHL entry draft, Mr. Bailey at 9th in 2008, and Mr. Eller at 13th in 2007.14 Both players are regarded as two-way forwards who are useful in all situations on the ice. To make a valid comparison between these two forwards, we will use Mr. Bailey’s numbers up to and including his platform year, the 2012-2013 season. Last season, Mr. Eller averaged 15:57 of time on ice, including 1:06 of power play time and 1:24 of penalty kill time. These numbers are very similar to those put up by Mr. Bailey in his platform year, as he averaged 16:22 of ice time, including

1:17 of power play time and 54 seconds of penalty kill time.15 Also, both players sport similar career points per game averages. In 329 career games, Mr. Bailey has tallied 139 points, good for

11 www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats 12 Supra, note 3. 13 www.capgeek.com 14 Supra, note 3. 15 Supra, note 1.

6 a career average of 0.42 points per game. In 287 career games, Mr. Eller has put up 103 points, good for an average of 0.36 points per game. Both players also have career plus/minus ratings in the negative, with Mr. Bailey at -25, and Mr. Eller at -14.16 The slight difference here can be attributed to the fact that the Islanders were only playoff contenders in one of the five seasons that Mr. Bailey has played for them, while the Canadiens have made the playoffs in 3 of Mr.

Eller’s 4 years with them.

One area where the two players differ is playoff performance. Mr. Eller significantly outperforms Mr. Bailey in the postseason, and has helped the Canadiens reach the playoffs in 3 of his 4 seasons with the club. Mr. Bailey, on the other hand, has only reached the playoffs once with the Islanders, and lost out in the first round. Mr. Eller has experienced great success when games matter most, and seems to strive under the intense pressure of the NHL playoffs. This past season, Mr. Eller was instrumental in helping the Canadiens reach the Eastern Conference Finals.

After a very mediocre season, in which he had 12 goals and 14 assists in 77 games, Mr. Eller responded to his critics and stepped up in a big way, tallying 5 goals and 8 assists in 17 playoff games, and registering a plus/minus rating of +6. In 25 career playoff games, Mr. Eller has 5 goals and 10 assists, and is a +7. Those five goals include a game winner as well as a shorthanded . Mr. Eller’s career points per game average in the playoffs is a cool 0.6, almost double his career regular season average of 0.36. Also, Mr. Eller’s career playoff plus/minus rating is drastically higher than his career regular season rating, again demonstrating his propensity to be at his best when under the most pressure. Mr. Bailey, on the other hand, has yet to score an NHL playoff goal, and has only 3 assists in 6 games, to go along with a lackluster -1 rating.17

16 Supra, note 3. 17 Ibid.

7 The second area where the two players differ is durability. Although neither player has played an entire 82-game season, the most games that Mr. Eller has missed in a season is 5. In his career, Mr. Eller has missed a total of 15 games. Mr. Bailey, on the other hand, has missed a significant chunk of the Islanders’ schedule throughout his first 5 seasons in the league, having missed a total of 45 games, three times as many as Mr. Eller.18 Although Mr. Bailey has played in 42 more career games than Mr. Eller, that does not fully account for such disparity. Both Mr.

Bailey and Mr. Eller are valuable, playmaking, defensive forwards, but they are no good to either of their teams when they are in the press box.

Due to the similarities between Mr. Eller and Mr. Bailey, but mainly due to the vast differences in playoff performance and durability, Mr. Eller submits that he is entitled to an award well above Mr. Bailey’s $3.3 million per year, specifically an award of $3.6 million per year.

B. Patrik Berglund, St. Louis Blues

Patrik Berglund signed a 3-year contract extension with the St. Louis Blues this past summer, worth an annual average value of $3.7 million.19 Mr. Berglund is a year older, and began his NHL career two years prior to Mr. Eller, but the two are nearly identical in height and weight (6’2”, 215 pounds for Eller, and 6’3”, 217 pounds for Berglund), and play a very similar role on their respective teams. Both Mr. Eller and Mr. Berglund are regarded as highly skilled, two-way centermen who can play in every situation. Although Mr. Berglund has played in 150 more career games, and has a significantly higher career points per game average than Mr. Eller, at 0.51,20 the two players have become very closely comparable over recent years. This past season, Mr. Berglund averaged 16:10 of time on ice per game, very similar to Mr. Eller’s

18 Ibid. 19 Supra, note 3. 20 Ibid.

8 average of 15:57 per game. Also, Mr. Berglund spent 1:32 on the power play each game, and

1:31 penalty killing, close to Mr. Eller’s 1:06 on the power play and 1:24 spent penalty killing.

Mr. Berglund put up 14 goals and 18 assists in 78 games, while Mr. Eller had 12 goals and 14 assists in 77 games. Although Mr. Berglund was a +10, Mr. Eller shone in other important categories, like hits (130 to Mr. Berglund’s 88), blocks (58 to Mr. Berglund’s 30), and faceoff percentage (53.2% to Mr. Berglund’s 47.6%). In the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 season, Mr. Berglund averaged 2 minutes more of ice time per game than Mr. Eller, and 1:38 more of power play time, yet finished with 5 less points. He was also a -2 on a St. Louis Blues team that finished fourth in the Western Conference.21 Mr. Eller, despite averaging only 14:49 a game, and only 42 seconds of power play time, still managed to put up 8 goals and 22 assists in

46 games, good for fourth overall on the Canadiens, and was a very respectable +8.22

Despite the many similarities between the two players, one area where Mr. Eller outduels

Mr. Berglund is in playoff performance. Mr. Berglund has helped the Blues reach the postseason four times in his six years in the league, but has only reached the second round once. Also, in two of those four years, Mr. Berglund was held scoreless as the Blues lost in the first round. This past year, he was particularly bad as the Blues lost out to the , putting up zero points and a -7 rating in 4 games. In 23 career playoff games, Mr. Berglund is a -8 and has a points per game average of 0.39, a significant drop from his career regular season average of

0.51.23 Mr. Eller, on the other hand, seems to elevate his game during the playoffs, as witnessed most recently during the 2013-2014 playoffs, when he put up 5 goals and 8 assists in 17 games and helped the Canadiens reach the Eastern Conference finals. In 25 career playoff games, Mr.

21 Supra, note 10. 22 Supra, note 1. 23 Ibid.

9 Eller is a +7 and has a career points per game average of 0.6, significantly greater than his regular season points per game average of 0.36.24

Given the many similarities between Mr. Eller and Mr. Berglund, Mr. Eller submits that his arbitration award should be very close in value to the $3.7 million per year that Mr. Berglund earns. Even though Mr. Eller does not possess the experience and regular season consistency of

Mr. Berglund, he has proven that he can strive under the pressure of the NHL playoffs, and has shown that he performs his best when the Canadiens need it most. For this reason, Mr. Eller submits that he should be entitled to an award just below that of Mr. Berglund, at $3.6 million per year.

IV. CONCLUSION

Lars Eller is a vital part of the Montreal Canadiens organization. Not only is he a versatile, two-way forward, but he has also contributed greatly to the success of the Canadiens over the four years that he has been in the NHL. When assessing his performance in comparison to similar NHL forwards, and when taking into consideration non-performance based intangibles, it is evident that he deserves an award with an average annual value above the $3.5 million midpoint. Based on Mr. Eller’s career statistics and bright future, appropriate compensation for a player of his caliber should be $3.6 million per year.

24 Ibid.

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