July 11: The Predators have now officially announced the contract, with Poile releasing the following statement:
We are very pleased to announce Filip’s signing today. As one of the best offensive players in our history, we are thrilled to have Filip as a part of our team for the next eight seasons. His talent, competitiveness and leadership are critical to our future as we continue to strive for our goal of winning a Stanley Cup. We believe that Filip, like Pekka Rinne before him and like our captain, Roman Josi, is doing now, will write a legacy with the Predators that fans will remember forever. Additionally, we’d like to wish Filip and his fiancée Erin all the best as they get married later this month. We appreciate having them both in our SMASHVILLE family for the next eight years.
July 9: Filip Forsberg isn’t leaving Nashville anytime soon as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve agreed to an eight-year contract with the winger. While financial terms weren’t officially disclosed, 104.5 The Zone’s Dawn Davenport was the first to report (Twitter link) that the deal is worth around $70MM; Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli confirms (via Twitter) that the deal carries an $8.5MM AAV which is worth a total of $68MM.
TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reported Sunday morning on the financial structure of the Forsberg deal. It is as follows:
- 2022-23: $10MM
- 2023-24: $10MM
- 2024-25: $10MM
- 2025-26: $10MM
- 2026-27: $4.5MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
- 2027-28: $4MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
- 2028-29: $4MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
- 2029-30: $3.5MM base salary, $3MM signing bonus
Interestingly, the deal does, in fact, come with some protection against movement. Per LeBrun, the deal has a full no-movement clause throughout, and a modified no-trade clause for the final two seasons of the contract.
The 27-year-old has spent parts of the last ten seasons with the Predators after they acquired him at the trade deadline from Washington in 2013 in exchange for Martin Erat and Michael Latta in a trade that worked out a whole lot better for Nashville than it did for the Capitals. Since then, Forsberg has become a consistent scorer for the Preds and has been a key cog on their top line for several years.
While Forsberg has been pretty steady in the goal-scoring department having notched at least 20 goals in each of his first six seasons (and produced at a 20-plus-goal pace in 2020-21), he found a new gear this past season, scoring 42 goals while chipping in with 42 assists, both career highs by a considerable margin. That was good enough to finish third on the Predators in points behind Roman Josi and Matt Duchene with their goal output – which ranked 12th in the league – helping to propel them to the postseason with the team only being in the middle of the pack in goals allowed.
The timing for that jump in production couldn’t have been better for Forsberg as it placed him as one of the top free agents of this year’s class, giving him plenty of leverage in contract talks. That has allowed him to earn a $2.5MM raise from his previous contract and plenty of job security since he’ll be signed through the 2029-30 season. It will be interesting to see if he was able to get any form of trade protection in the contract as that’s something that GM David Poile has historically been extremely hesitant to hand out over the years.
Nashville is clearly looking to remain in the playoff picture after adding Ryan McDonagh earlier this offseason and keeping Forsberg in the fold will certainly help their chances of reaching the postseason again. They have a little over $9MM left in cap space per CapFriendly with RFA winger Yakov Trenin the most notable still to be signed so it’s possible that the Predators could look to add another impact player this summer if they intend to spend close to the $82.5MM salary cap.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Dang it. Was hoping Islanders would snag him. On to gaudreau
Shame Johnny hockey wouldn’t except that kinda deal
Accept
Tennessee has no state income tax, so I am sure that helped with the final numbers.
I always find this interesting.
Texas has no state income tax but it’s still expensive AF to live here. Property taxes and home owners insurance insurance is insane here.
Not sure about TN tho. I guess the backwoods way of life might be cheaper.
@bigdaddyt – “kind of”, too… ;)
So Tennessee is “backwoods,” but Texas is not? Oh, okay, buddy!
@kscheer As for backwoods of Tennessee , thou along the Tennessee River on the western end I can tell you it is not cheap, thou managed if you make use of what is around you. Would like to send you a backwoods invitation to go “Snipe Hunting” with us.
@G – :) (And you thought I was taking the day off!)
@Mac – there are no off days here at PHR! :D
@Gbear – Boy, you ain’t kidding! We’ll give @Gavin & Co. the Holiday discount to show our appreciation! :)
@Mac – Only days left until UFA day, so no rest for Gavin and crew…..or the rest of us! :D
@Mac, never would have thought that of you , figured you were just staying cool due to weather as I am since too darn! hot here to do anything , luckily got some nice rain showers for first time in a bit , and monitoring the Hockey news , and draft, and upcoming free agency and trade news.
@Gbear – Since somebody has to it, we all can shout it out- “Let the carnage begin!” Beware of Cap Cannibals!
@G – I liken our threats of precipitation as something akin to Chris Pronger coming at you in the corner to squash the crap out of you, only to pull off and just make noise hitting the glass. Then, Prongs skates off with that evil smirk…
@Mac- If Poile brings in a top 6 winger in these next few days, I may have to call a cease fire on him for awhile. :D
@Gbear – We’ll have to call it a sudden attack of good sense!
Good move Nashville well done
That trade by McPhee was, maybe, the worst in NHL history.
At the time, everyone but him saw it for what it was…a pathetically desperate move by a GM on his way out to MARGINALLY upgrade his current roster at the expense of a future star…and that’s exactly how it turned out.
Certainly the best trade Poile ever made and he’s made a lot of good ones.
Nashville will live to regret it. They will be paying for nothing eventually
Most teams regret those 8yr deals. Takes a lot of those players well past their prime but everything is about cap space
You go into these deals knowing that the last few years of the deal will not be ideal, but in the immediate and midterm future you need to score goals. And the Preds in particular can’t afford to lose any goal scoring.
But as Gentry Estes wrote in the Tennessean, this can’t be all Poile does at the forward position. At least one top 6 forward needs to be added this summer too.
The best thing that happened to keep Forsberg in TN was the Kings trading for Fiala. I truly think Forsberg would’ve signed in LA if that deal hadn’t been made.
Nashville doesn’t have cap space to add a top six forward unless they fine one on a one or two year deal which is not likely. They need to hold back enough to for next year’s Jeannot, Carrier, Fabbro extensions and the Tomasino and Tolvanen extensions the year after that.
find *
Players like Fabbro and Tolvanen are no sure locks to be kept around past this season and in fact could be used in a deal for a top 6 winger.
Signing a UFA to a long term deal wouldn’t be the route to go. The more likely scenario is trading for someone with 2 to 3 years left on their current deal. The Preds (finally) have some promising forward prospects coming up thru the pipeline, so a shorter term fix is ideal.
I watched every Kraken game last year (it wasn’t as brutal as you’d think), and I’d recommend Colin Blackwell to any friend. That guy is a great player, and his services are quite affordable at the moment. Not a top 6 forward but a very capable mid-6 guy who is a team player.
Always liked Blackwell in Nashville. He would fit with Hynes style of play.
And GMs wonder why they get stuck trying to move bad contracts. The term on this deal should have been closer to 5 years, And the deal only really solidifies Nashville’s ability to stay competitive, Nashville won’t be winning a cup with this group.
Forsberg wasn’t signing a 5 year contract with anyone. It was either 8 in Nashville or 7 somewhere else.
So with no movement that means he can sit on this deal…Good luck Preds…
So the signing bonus is in the later years of the contract. Unusual.
Fact is, Poile put himself in a position to where, if he wanted to be an even semi-serious playoff team, had to re-sign Forsberg due to not having any high end forward prospects ready to take on a top line role in the NHL right now (though Kemmel could be there next season). Had he drafted someone like Seth Jarvis a few years ago, he might have been able to walk away from this 8 year deal.
yeah this woln’t end ugly…
As long as it has five 40 goal seasons to start with, I’ll take the deal.