Oleksiak signs up for salary arbitration

Penguins defenseman Jamie Oleksiak filed for salary arbitration Thursday, although it’s likely procedural and nothing more.

Conor Sheary and Brian Dumoulin filed for arbitration last summer but avoided it by signing multiyear extensions with the club.

It’s notable that Oleksiak filed because it means he and the Penguins have some negotiating to do, but this is a fairly common scenario for those in Oleksiak’s position: a restricted free agent with arbitration rights and someone who has been valuable enough to his team that he has a legitimate case to argue for more money.

The deadline to file was 5 p.m. Oleksiak was the only Penguin to file for arbitration and one of 44 players league-wide to go this route.

In arbitration, the player and team propose a salary for the coming season, then argue their case before a neutral third party, who decides on the player’s salary. The club gets to say whether it wants the agreement to cover one season or two.

Teams also have the option to “walk away” from the awarded salary, in which case the player becomes an unrestricted free agent.

That is extremely unlikely to happen, especially here, where general manager Jim Rutherford has repeatedly expressed optimism that a deal will get done.

After arriving via trade from Dallas, Oleksiak produced five goals and 17 points in 68 regular-season games plus one goal in 12 postseason games. He’s a physical defenseman who figures to occupy one of the spots on their third pair.

Throughout the offseason, Penguins brass has talked about Oleksiak’s physicality being an asset, and he’s expected to grow more into a regular penaltykilling role.

Online data analyst Matt Cane projected that Oleksiak would net $1,659,720 on his next contract, although it’s likely that figure is on the low side.

Oleksiak was working on a one-year deal that paid him $964,688.

Of the 30 players who filed for arbitration last year, only one (Nate Schmidt) actually had a hearing.