JM_

left side's getting crowded and he wasn't showing anything special.

No biggie

I think this might actually be a way for teams and players to avoid the awful and acrimonious process that is arbitration.  In the report about Pouliot (and DSP and the Caps), it's been noted that both sides are still open to working out a deal. 

I mean, there's not only the sticking point with the club that they can't walk away from any arbitration decision that comes under a value of $4M, there's also the aspect of how the club has to basically crucify the player (point out his every flaw and weakness to the arbitrator) to make their case, which is probably not appealing to either the player or club if they *do* want to work things out.  Add that to the fact that the arbitrators *aren't* hockey people, which has led to a long history of questionable decisions.

In other words, this might be more about the arbitration process itself.

According to Rick Dhaliwal, he reports that this decision was based on the want of a 1 way deal. Hopefully we can retain DP at a reasonable price in exchange for a 1 way deal.