Next week, the National Hockey League kicks off arguably its most bitter and destructive annual process.
The annual salary arbitration hearings feature restricted free agents trying to get raises - or in rarer cases, teams trying to drag their cap hits down - through a process that puts many things out in the open and potentially damages relationships.
Here's a brief primer on salary arbitration.
WHAT'S ARBITRATION?
There are two types of salary arbitration in the CBA: player-elected and club-elected. There's no limit to player-elected arbitration filings specified in the CBA, so presumably a player could do it multiple times, but there's also a small window available in restricted free agency for a player to do so.