IN THE MATTER OF A SALARY ARBITRATION BETWEEN: DERICK BRASSARD -AND- NEW YORK RANGERS BEFORE: NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ARBITRATORS’ BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF A COMPENSATION REQUEST FOR THE PLAYER Team 32 Derick Brassard’s Representation TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………….…....…………3 II. OVERALL ASSESSMENT OF THE PLAYER ………...…...…….………...3 III. NUMBER OF GAMES PLAYED AND INJURY HISTORY……………….4 IV. CAREER-TO-PLATFORM STATISTICS……………………..……....…….4 V. OVERALL CONTRIBUTION TO THE CLUB………………...……………5 VI. COMPARABLE PLAYERS………………………………………….………6 a. Mr. Brassard compared to Mr. Gagner………..…………………………..6 b. Mr. Brassard compared to Mr. Ennis...….…………………………….......8 VII. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………..………..10 2 I. INTRODUCTION This brief will provide a framework that is capable of awarding appropriate value to Mr. Brassard’s offensive contributions to the New York Rangers. In this context, Mr. Brassard’s valuation will consider: overall performance, number of games played, injury history, length of service, and his overall contributions to the Rangers. The salaries of the comparable forwards will frame a narrow range to assign Mr. Brassard’s value. On behalf of the Player, Mr. Brassard, we respectfully submit that $5.2 million for one year is an accurate and equitable assessment of his value to the Rangers. II. OVERALL ASSESSMENT OF THE PLAYER Mr. Brassard is a 27 year-old, left-handed winger from Hull, Quebec. Mr. Brassard is 6’1”, 202 lbs., as of the beginning of the 2013-2014 NHL season. In the 2006 NHL Entry Draft (“Entry Draft”) the Columbus Blue Jackets (“the Blue Jackets”) selected Mr. Brassard, in the first round, 6th overall1. The Player’s high selection in the Entry Draft is the partial result of the high value teams place on his style of play. Mr. Brassard has excellent on ice vision and play making ability. He has great drive towards the net, and an even better wrist shot. He is capable of playing on the first or second line for the Rangers as his ability to create scoring chances is well documented. Prior to his time with the New York Rangers Mr. Brassard spent six years with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Having now completed eight NHL seasons Mr. Brassard is in the prime of his career and brings a great deal of experience to the New York Rangers. 1 National Hockey League, statistics, online: <http://www.nhl.com> 3 III. NUMBER OF GAMES PLAYED AND INJURY HISTORY Mr. Brassard has played eight seasons in the NHL accumulating 403 games2. During the 2007-2008 season, Mr. Brassard split his playing time between the Blue Jackets and their American Hockey League (“AHL”) affiliate. IV. CAREER-TO-PLATFORM STATISTICS Mr. Brassard recorded career highs in his 2010-2011 season with 17 goals, 30 assists for a total of 47 points, which equates to 0.64 Pts/G in 74 games played.3 While he failed to surpass this performance since 2010-2011, he has remained consistent by surpassing his 17 goals in his platform season scoring 18 this past season4. Mr. Brassard’s career scoring statistics suggest that he is a proven and balanced point producer. The theme of offensive consistency is apparent throughout his career and little weight should be placed on his early career (see Table 1). Moreover, Mr. Brassard’s career-to-platform statistics speak to the reliability of his statistical pace during his platform-season. Table 1: Derick Brassard’s Career Performance5 Season GP G A P +/- PIM PPG SHG GWG S TOI/ game 07-08 17 1 1 2 -4 6 0 0 0 13 9:03 08-09 31 10 15 25 12 17 3 0 1 59 14:25 09-10 79 9 27 36 -17 48 4 0 1 125 14:56 10-11 74 17 30 47 -11 55 6 0 3 183 17:01 11-12 74 14 27 41 -20 42 5 0 3 125 16:20 12-13 47 12 17 29 1 16 3 0 1 88 16:31 /16:3 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 5 National Hockey League online: <www.nhl.com>. 4 8 13-14 81 18 27 45 2 46 7 0 4 159 15:47 TOTAL 403 81 144 225 -37 230 28 0 12 752 ------- V. PLATFORM-SEASON STATISTICS Mr. Brassard played 81 games in his platform-season, which is a sufficient sample to gauge his contributions to the Ranger’s and to determine an appropriate salary. Mr. Brassard scored 18 goals and 27 assists in the 2013-2014 season, which resulted in 0.56 points per game or 0.22 goals per game6. VI. OVERALL CONTRIBUTION TO THE CLUB Mr. Brassard played as the second line center for the Rangers in his platform season, which demonstrates his importance to the club7. Mr. Brassard contributed 9 goals in the final 26 games of the 2013-2014 season to help clinch 5th place in the Eastern conference. Mr. Brassard finished 4th in points on an offensively talented New York Rangers team. It is highly valued when a player, playing against top players has the ability to produce both offensively and defensively and Mr. Brassard’s plus/minus statistic of +2 demonstrates that he has the ability to excel in this area8. Mr. Brassard’s ice time was consistent throughout the season averaging 15:47 minutes per game demonstrating that the player was trusted in crucial situations of the game9. Mr. Brassard was a key contributor on the Rangers power play which finished in the top half of the league converting on 18.2% of their power plays10 by contributing 7 goals and 11 assists and averaging 2:31 minutes of power play time per game in the 6 Supra, note 2. 7 thehockeynews.com, http://forecaster.thehockeynews.com/hockeynews/hockey/depthchart.php?NYR 8 Supra, note 2. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid. 5 regular season11. Mr. Brassard was a key component in the Rangers playoff success. Since joining the club in the 2012-2013 season, he has played a total of 35 playoff games for the Rangers, scoring 8 goals and 24 points12. In the playoffs, Mr. Brassard has scored 3 game winning goals, which indicates that in high-pressure situations Mr. Brassard performs well13. VII. COMPARABLE PLAYERS A. SAM GAGNER Table 2: Sam Gagner’s Career Performance14 Season GP G A P +/- PIM PPG SHG GWG S TOI/ game 07-08 79 13 36 49 -21 23 4 0 1 135 15:40 08-09 76 16 25 41 -1 51 6 0 1 156 16:45 09-10 68 15 26 41 -8 33 6 0 1 170 16:17 10-11 68 15 27 42 -17 37 3 1 2 138 17:44 11-12 75 18 29 47 5 36 6 0 0 149 17:10 12-13 48 14 24 38 -6 23 4 0 1 113 19:24 TOTALS 414 91 167 258 -48 203 29 1 6 861 ------ In 2013, Sam Gagner signed a three-year contract with the Edmonton Oilers worth $4.8 million per year.15 At the time of the signing, Mr. Gagner was a 24-year-old centre with the Oilers. He had six years of NHL experience and no playoff experience. He played in 414 NHL games, scoring 258 points, and at the time, had a PPG career statistic of 0.62, which is slightly higher then Mr. Brassard’s 0.56 career statistic. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. 14 www.nhl.com 15 http://www.capgeek.com/player/23 6 In his platform season, Mr. Gagner played 48 games, scoring 38 points (14 goals and 24 assists) and had a PPG statistic of 0.79. That is significantly higher then Mr. Brassard’s 0.56. However, Mr. Gagner played in a shortened season where he had adequate rest. Mr. Brassard played a full 81 game season and participated in a playoff run to the Stanley Cup Final. He also played four minutes less per game then Mr. Gagner. As mentioned earlier, Mr. Gagner has zero playoff experience, whereas Mr. Brassard has 35 games worth of experience where he scored 24 points during those games. There is great value in playoff experience, and play in the Stanley Cup Final is even more important. During his platform season, Mr. Gagner had an even strength production ranking of 79th in the NHL, but faced average competition. In the East, Mr. Brassard regularly faced excellent competition. Mr. Gagner has a plus minus in his platform season of -6, whereas Mr. Brassard has one of +2. It is evident that Mr. Brassard is more defensively responsible then Mr. Gagner is. In his platform year, Mr. Gagner had an average of 2.29 giveaways per game, whereas Mr. Brassard, in a longer season, had an average of 1.31 giveaways per game. 16 Both players had similar takeaway statistics in their platform years. It is clear that Mr. Brassard is stronger on the puck. Mr. Gagner was useful on the powerplay but gave up too many pucks at even strength. Mr. Brassard is also only improving in his play on the ice, whereas Mr. Gagner seems to be at a stalemate. Mr. Gagner is already one of the top centremen on his team, with the most icetime on the Oilers in his platform year and second in points. Mr. Brassard, on the other hand, is only improving and is working his way towards one of the 16 http://www.sportingcharts.com/nhl/stats/player-giveaways-statistic/2012/ 7 top centre spots on a very talented New York Rangers team. In his rookie year, Mr. Brassard only played just over nine minutes, and is now playing on average 15:47 a night.