The agent for Vladimir Sobotka says that the St. Louis Blues could’ve had his client for $300,000 more than the club was offering on a one-year deal.
"[Blues general manager Doug Armstrong] started at $2.4 million (for one season) and he came up to $2.7 million, so he gave me his best number,” agent Petr Svoboda told the Post-Dispatch. “We were at one year, $3 million. So basically it was over $300,000. There was no room for negotiation. It was one year at $2.7 (million) — take it.”
Instead, Sobotka is bound for the KHL, where he’ll play at least one season with Avangard Omsk.
Armstrong said yesterday that the Blues offered Sobotka a multi-year deal in June (three, four, or five years, “at his choice”) at “north of $3 million” per season. The 27-year-old restricted free agent was last offered a one-year deal at $2.7 million per, or a two-year deal at $3 million per.
The Blues were willing to give Sobotka more per season on a multi-year deal, as he only had one season remaining before he could become an unrestricted free agent. But they weren’t willing to give him enough, apparently.
Sobotka will still have an arbitration hearing on July 21.
“An award will be given and that will be his contract for the ’14-15 season,” Armstrong said. “We hope that he’ll be at training camp under that contract. If he’s in the KHL, that contract will toll until future years.”