The arbitrator, finally and fairly, split the difference. It was worth the wait to Scott Gomez, and Lou Lamoriello says he’ll abide by Gomez’s $5 million arbitrated salary award.
“I’m happy,” Gomez, the Devils’ top offensive center, said last night after receiving a 127 percent raise for next season. “You can’t complain about that.” The Devils, it is now believed, proposed a salary of $3.5 million for Gomez, who won a $2.9 million arbitration award before the 2004 lockout and its 24 percent pay cut trimmed it to $2.2 million for last season.
Gomez, who erupted with 33 goals – second to Brian Gionta’s 48 – last season, along with his team-best 51 assists, is believed to have sought $6.5 million.
The award is believed to put the Devils effectively at the $44 million NHL salary cap, with Gionta, David Hale, Paul Martin, Erik Rasmussen and perhaps a veteran backup goalie yet to sign.
“I know where I have to be the first day of the season, and I will be where I have to be,” Lamoriello said. Although he had 48 hours to decide, Lamoriello immediately declared he would not exercise walk-away rights, which immediately would have made Gomez an unrestricted free agent.
“We will absolutely accept the award,” Lamoriello said. “We’ll accept it and go forward.” It also seems unlikely he’d deal his top playmaking center, because he’d likely be trading for a lesser player with a lesser salary, when needing all the top players he can find.
“We’ll do everything we can to keep our team together,” Lamoriello said.Gomez, 26, a two-Cup winner and 2000 NHL Rookie of the Year, can become unrestricted next season anyway.
“We’ll see what happens now. Lou Lamoriello is one of the best at his job for a reason,” Gomez said.
Much of the Devils’ cap distress is due to the $7.1 million assessed for Alexander Mogilny and Vladimir Malakhov for the upcoming season.
Devils sign five While they were awaiting the Gomez ruling, the Devils yesterday signed three defensemen who weren’t in the NHL last season, including former Ranger and 2000 Hobey Baker winner Mike Mottau.
They also signed Swedish backliner John Oduya and Slovak defenseman Tomas Harant, as well as Ohio State center Rod Pelley.
Mottau, 28, played 19 games for the Rangers in 2000-01 and 2001-02, and after being dealt to Calgary, where he played four more games, spent the past three seasons in the AHL. Oduya, 24, is a former Washington draftee, 221st overall in 2001. Harant, a 6-foot-3 26-year-old, was Nashville’s 173rd overall pick in 2000. Pelley played four years at OSU, scoring 22 goals in 41 games as a CCHA second-team all-star in 2005.
Panthers sign Belfour Ed Belfour, whose 457 victories rank second on the NHL list, signed a one-year deal with the Florida Panthers and likely will be the backup goalie to newly acquired Alex Auld.
The 41-year-old Belfour spent the last three seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs.