Report: Vancouver’s Jannik Hansen wins arbitration case

Today’s big winner in salary arbitration is none other than Vancouver Canucks forward Jannik Hansen. Jim Jamieson from The White Towel gives us the low down.

The spare-part winger was awarded a contract for $825,000 in salary arbitration Thursday, a healthy raise of $275,000 from his $550,000 salary last season.

The contract is for one year and is a one-way deal, which means Hansen makes the same salary whether he plays in the NHL or the minors.

The contract will bring their cap number to $60,583,000 and $1,183,333 over the salary cap upper limit of $59.4 million. The Canucks, even if they wanted to, could not walk away from the award because it is below the $1.6 million threshold for such an action.

Hansen’s salary is a $250,000 raise on what he made last year with the Canucks and while it’s not exactly a crushing amount the Canucks are hard up against the cap and await an even more punishing salary decision with forward Mason Raymond who is looking at a substantial raise from his old salary of $900,000.

Expect the Canucks to find a way to make a deal to shed salary by sending Kevin Bieksa out of town. Bieksa makes $3.75 million dollars which would be about the right amount to help clear cap space for both Hansen’s new contract and Raymond’s soon-to-arrive deal.