Sometimes these things require a hard deadline to get done. Last year, Red Wings GM Ken Holland and Newport’s Don Meehan met for coffee on the morning of Petr Mrazek’s arbitration. They continued negotiations that were closing in on being decided by a third party.



The arbitration case was supposed to begin at 9 a.m. but they kept talking an hour after that deadline. Finally, they shook on a deal.



Mrazek ended up getting what he wanted in a two-year contract worth $4 million per season. For the Red Wings, it was worth giving in to avoid what can be an ugly process — when a team is forced to tear down a player in order to save money on his next deal. That’s typically been the case under Detroit GM Ken Holland.



But the Tomas Tatar situation appears to be different.



On Tuesday, the two sides exchanged briefs and, according to an NHL source, the two sides are $1.2 million apart in what a one-year deal should look like for...