TORONTO (CP) - Joe Thornton of the Boston Bruins, Zdeno Chara of the Ottawa Senators and Scott Niedermayer of the New Jersey Devils are among the record 67 NHL players who filed for salary arbitration.
Other restricted free agents who filed for arbitration by Thursday's midnight EDT deadline include Brendan Morrison and Dan Cloutier of the Vancouver Canucks, Bryan McCabe and Tomas Kaberle of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Chris Phillips of the Senators, Miikka Kiprusoff of the Calgary Flames, Eric Brewer of the Edmonton Oilers, Richard Zednik of the Montreal Canadiens and Alex Tanguay of the Colorado Avalanche.
Thornton, 25, is getting nowhere in contract talks with the Bruins, having rejected their one-year, $5.5-million US qualifying offer.
"Over the last few weeks we've discussed Joe's future with the Bruins and Boston was unwilling to discuss a long-term deal," Thornton's agent J.P. Barry said Friday from Los Angeles.
"Based on that approach, and given that Joe has excellent stats over the last few years, we decided to go this route."
Thornton could get awarded around $8 million for one year, given that he's had more points in the last three seasons than Todd Bertuzzi - whose new deal averages out to $7.9 million a year - as well as Jarome Iginla, who made $7.5 million last year.
The Bruins captain has averaged 80.5 points a season over the last three years, including a career-high 101 in 2002-03.
Arbitration hearings are scheduled for Aug. 1-15 in Toronto although many of the 67 players who filed will likely reach agreement with their respective NHL clubs before any hearing is held.
"We went this route but at the same time we're open to discussing a long-term deal with Boston," Barry said.
Among the high-profile restricted free agents who opted not to file for arbitration are Calgary's Iginla and Chris Pronger of the St. Louis Blues.
Arbitration hearings are often nasty sessions where team management runs down the player in question. The player's agent, meanwhile, builds up a statistical case for his client.
An independent arbitrator studies both arguments and usually hands over his decision two or three days later, often a one-year salary award but sometimes a two-year deal. The NHL team has the right to walk away from the award, making the player an unrestricted free agent free to sign with any team in the league.
The Buffalo Sabres have the most players headed for arbitration with seven: Mika Noronen, Jean-Pierre Dumont, Martin Biron, Brian Campbell, Jochen Hecht, Brad Brown, Daniel Briere and Rory Fitzpatrick.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning had five players file: Pavel Kubina, Ruslan Fedotenko, Cory Sarich, Fredrik Modin and Cory Stillman.
The Toronto Maple Leafs had the most players file among the six Canadian clubs, with Nikolai Antropov and Clarke Wilm joining McCabe and Kaberle.