Deal or No Deal

Deal! Kris Versteeg has decided that his making money is more important than my curiosity. According to capgeek.com Kris Versteeg has signed a contract identical to that signed by Cam Barker a couple of days ago (three years, 9.25M total). With that, the NHLPA's grievance against the Chicago Blackhawks for improperly tendering qualifying offers is now moot. Dale Tallon has done well to realize that he needed to get these deals done before an independent arbitrator made a decision. The risk of it going against the Blackhawks was far too great. Still, it's a bit disappointing (for me) that none of the Blackhawks decided to risk letting an arbitrator decide their fate. I'm not convinced that Barker and Versteeg got particularly good deals out of this (I'll be watching carefully to see if Denis Grebeshkov gets paid more than Barker) which I suppose is a credit to Tallon. This whole ordeal has helped NHL to (re)learn that it's important to follow the rules outlined in the CBA, but the players involved in this case really didn't make the Blackhawks pay.