Norris Trophy finalist, Shea Weber has reportedly received a whopping $7.5 million, one-year contract by an arbiter in Toronto on Tuesday. The Preds' captain earned $4.5 million last year and reportedly asked for $8.5 million as the Pred's countered with at $4.75 million.
Because of how rare it can be that players actually get handsomely rewarded via arbitration, this comes as a bit of a surprise. Weber's $7.5 million reward can now be deemed as the highest ever NHL arbitration award in history. In addition Weber now becomes the highest paid blue-liner in the NHL ahead of underachiever Brian Campbell's ridiculous contract as well as Zdeno Chara's $6.9 million contract. My guess is the Preds' would have been able to work out a cheaper deal around the number of $6.5 million and were not expecting such a generous reward.
Next season, Weber will again become a restricted free agent and the likes of Ryan Suter and Pekka Rinne will become unrestricted free agents, making for an interesting 2012 summer for the Preds.
