Bernier asks for 5.1-million in arbitration

Yesterday we took a shot at a mock arbitration between Jonathan Bernier and the Leafs, with Cat and I acting as the two parties and Jon stepping in as arbitrator. In our discussions leading up to the piece, we figured Bernier should shoot for a mind-boggling amount of money since, given his workload as a starter, he’d obviously want to create a huge gap between his number and the team’s, and try to settle a couple million below. It’s just the way arbitration goes.

Brayden Holtby, for example, asked for 8-million dollars per year in arbitration last week, but ended up settling for just 6.1-million. For that reason we pinned Bernier with a ridiculous 6.5-million dollar ask, thinking he’d like to come down in the area of 5-million AAV. The number he’s actually asking for, as reported by Chris Johnston this morning, is much lower.

As Kevin McGran of the Star went on to note, from the Leafs’ side that 2.89-million is the lowest they can possibly offer, at 85% of Bernier’s previous salary. Or, you know, the most Lou Lamoriello thing ever.

Cat looked deeper into what we might expect for Bernier’s new cap hit just a few weeks back, and eventually came to a number somewhere in the $4.1-4.5M range, which, given where the two sides sit currently, will likely be dead on.