The two RFA forwards have submitted an appeal for arbitration.
The NHLPA has announced that Carolina Hurricanes forwards Martin Necas and Jack Drury are two of the 14 RFAs who have filed for salary arbitration.
RFAs who have collected enough professional experience are allowed to seek judgement from a third-party salary arbitrator if they feel like a team is not offering them fair value.
That arbitrator in turn determines what is fair value after both the player and the team make their cases, although salary cap and player comparable are not usable evidence in these cases.
A case settled by an arbitrator, which a decision for must be announced within 48 hours of the hearing, can only be one to two years in length and the the team in this case will elect the length of the term.
Teams can choose to walk away from any decision made by an arbitrator for a contract over $4.74 million , but that player in turn becomes an unrestricted free agent. Teams are bound to sign a player to any decision from an arbitrator below that $4.74 million threshold.
Necas, 25, is coming off of a 24 goal, 53 point season but had 71 points the year before that.
Drury, 24, is coming off of an eight goal, 27 point campaign, and his first full NHL season.
A contract is almost always agreed upon before arbitration is reached. This process is simply just a way to speed up the process of getting a fair-value contract.
Filing for arbitration also means a player is ineligible to sign an offer sheet.
The deadline for team elected arbitration is July 6 at 5 p.m. EST and cases will be heard from July 20 to Aug. 4.
We will learn of Necas and Drury's specific hearing dates at a later time.
