This is a first folks.

The Vancouver Canucks have released a statement that in lieu of tendering a qualifying offer to oft-overrated Mason Raymond the team will invoke salary arbitration to have his salary adjusted.

Laurence Gilman, Canucks VP of hockey operations said due to Raymond’s dip in production over the last few seasons, the club will rework his contract.

Raymond played 55 games in 2011-12 after recovering from a fractured vertebrae suffered in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final.

He scored 10 goals and 10 assists in 2011/12. In 2010-11 he had 15 goals and 24 helpers in 70 games.

Bluntly, he's scored 6 more points in 2 seasons than he did in 2009/10.

Nice. For once a team is doing what I've wished they could do. ONLY in the NHL eh?

“This is about staying competitive in a salary cap system and it allows us to operate as efficiently as possible,” he said. “Mason is an important part of our team, one that we clearly see as part of our future going forward, if he weren’t part of the solution, we would not have tendered a qualifying offer and would have let him go as an unrestricted free agent.
The arbitration process, which will take place in Toronto between July 20 and August 4, is no different than a player filing for salary arbitration, as Raymond did in 2010.