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Thursday, August 17, 2000
Nasty win for Radek
Bonk gets 2-year, $3.25M deal; Sens compare him to Hoglund
RADEK Bonk flew home to the Czech Republic a happy man yesterday, likely still wearing the tire marks of someone who had recently been thrown under the bus by his employers.
In the final decision of the arbitration season, Ralph Berger ruled in favour of the veteran centre, who was looking for a two-year, $3.25-million (US) deal from the Senators.
Bonk, who was Ottawa's regular-season scoring leader while earning $800,000 (US) in 1999-2000, will make $1.5 million this year and $1.75 million in 2001-2002 unless the team walks away from the deal.
That's doubtful, even though the Senators hoped to pay him $1 million next season and $1.078 million the year after.
As is always the case in the arbitration process, the team did its best to downplay the player's contributions.
Bonk, who led the Senators in game-winning goals (five) and was their co-leader in power play goals (10), was "really ripped in the hearing," according to an NHL source.
Even though he enjoyed the best of his six seasons offensively and was often in charge of shutting down the opponent's top centre, he listened in while the team claimed much of his success had to do with his linemates.
It was pointed out that Bonk's production dropped off dramatically when Magnus Arvedson was injured.
"They said he was inconsistent," said the source, "and that he relied too much on Arvedson. They compared him to (Toronto's) Jonas Hoglund."
Hoglund, known strictly as a one-way player, scored 29 goals last season, but almost all of them came during the first half when he played on Mats Sundin's line.
Hoglund, it's believed, may wind up the odd man out because of the acquisitions of Gary Roberts and Shayne Corson.
Bonk, who stepped up his game noticeably when the team needed someone to fill the shoes of the AWOL Alexei Yashin, will come to camp as Ottawa's No. 1 centre and with a salary that is now close to the league's average.
His raise works out to 87.5% this season and represents the fourth highest awarded by an arbitrator in the 14 rulings made in the past two weeks.
Calgary Flames goalie Fred Brathwaite received the biggest bump in pay (155%), followed by Carolina's Jeff O'Neill (147%) and Anaheim's Patrick Traverse (141%).
Neither Bonk nor his agent, Jiri Crha, could be reached for comment.
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