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All’s quiet on the Shea Weber contract front

NHL Awards Portraits

LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 22: Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators poses for a portrait during the 2011 NHL Awards at the Palms Casino Resort June 22, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

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Now that we’re seeing contracts getting settled out all over the place, there’s a few guys with big names still waiting to be signed by their teams. Zach Parise, Drew Doughty, and Luke Schenn are all still waiting to be signed to new deals as restricted free agents but perhaps the biggest and most important one is Nashville’s Shea Weber.

Weber is the Predators captain and he’s just shy of turning 26 years-old. With his arbitration hearing coming up on August 2, the Predators and GM David Poile would love to get a deal done with him ahead of time and get him locked up to a long term deal. With time ticking down, things aren’t quite moving along fast.

Josh Cooper of The Tennessean has the update on how slowly things are moving with Weber courtesy of David Poile.

There isn’t much to report. We talked with David Poile earlier, and this is what he had to say: “Nothing new. We reached out to his agent yesterday and haven’t heard anything back yet today. We are preparing to go to Toronto (for arbitration). Would I like to sign Shea to a longer-term contract vs. going to arbitration? Absolutely.”

So far this summer, there’s been one case that went to arbitration and that resulted in Chris Campoli getting $2.5 million and being turned down by the Blackhawks. Arbitration isn’t the most fun process as we’ve been mentioning all summer long and having to take your team captain through that doesn’t exactly create warm, fuzzy feelings for everyone. Going to arbitration also means getting just a one year deal done and not the long term deal they’re hoping to get done with Weber.

Given how everything else has played out with other restricted free agents, especially those with potential arbitration cases, we’re not doubting that Weber gets a contract done before August 2. The Predators are trying to do it all right though and get a deal that makes sense all around. While they’re normally a frugal team, going all out to take care of, arguably, their best player wouldn’t be held against them.