The Nashville Predators have made a massive decision, choosing to buy out forward Matt Duchene’s contract according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Duchene had three seasons remaining on the $8MM AAV free-agent contract he signed a few years ago. Now, they’ll save $5.44MM against the cap this season, $2.44MM next season, and $1.44MM the season after at a cost of $1.55MM from 2026-27 through 2028-29.
Here’s what Duchene’s cap hit will be, post-buyout, on Nashville’s books:
2023-24: $2.56MM
2024-25: $5.56MM
2025-26: $6.56MM
2026-27: $1.56MM
2027-28: $1.56MM
2028-29: $1.56MM
This move comes as a bit of a surprise seeing as Duchene was a 43-goal, 86-point scorer just one season ago. The 32-year-old’s production declined to 22 goals and 56 points in 71 games this past season, but while not exactly worth an $8MM cap hit those numbers are nothing to scoff at either.
That’s solid second-line production, but with the youth movement the Predators are hoping to have up front it’s understandable that they’d want to prioritize making room for younger players to be placed in premium offensive positions.
Duchene was signed to give Nashville the top-line center they’d been craving since the franchise’s inception, but shortly after signing it became clear that Duchene was most effective playing the wing.
The Predators’ dream of a deep center corps featuring Duchene, Ryan Johansen, and Kyle Turris lasted just one season, and now all three players are no longer Predators.
Two of those players were removed from Nashville’s roster via a buyout, and in 2024-25 Nashville will have $11.55MM of cap space tied up in dead money for the Turris and Duchene buyouts as well as the salary retention on Johansen’s deal. But for Barry Trotz’s new regime, cleaning house and providing room for their fresh faces on offense was clearly the priority over hoping Duchene would bounce back to his 2021-22 form.
For Duchene, he’ll now have the chance to re-enter the free agent market at the age of 32. While he might not in actuality be the 86-point superstar he has appeared to be in flashes over the course of his career, he’s still a well-regarded offensive player who is sure to have interest across the league from teams looking to add some skill to their lineup.
In a precariously thin free agent class for centers, the fact that Duchene was once regarded as an NHL first-line center will bode well for his earning power, even if it’s clear that’s not who he is anymore.
Teams will have to carefully examine the injury Duchene suffered late in the season with Nashville, a finger injury that Duchene underwent two surgeries to repair. Per The Hockey News’ Ann Kimmel, “no tendons were damaged,” so “doctors expect that Duchene can make a full recovery and may be able to resume full activity in June.”
That’s undoubtedly positive news, but the state of Duchene’s finger will be something for interested teams to monitor as they examine why he was bought out of his contract despite a decently productive season as well as whether Duchene is the right player for contenders to commit scarce cap dollars to sign.
Photos Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Barry was having a Beer with Billy Guerin at Tootsies, and decided to pull a card out of Billy G’s buyout book
Could have kept him through this season. Then with the higher cap next season you could have dealt him with some retained (or at this year’s trade deadline).
Agreed. They dont spend to the cap anyway. This is just being cheap
This is stupid. His cap hit will hit hard just at the time that you would think the team would start trying to be competitive again. Just ride the contract out at least another year and reduce the buyout time period.
After Trotz failing to make any sort of splash at the draft and now paying a ton of money for Johansen and Duchene to play elsewhere, I may start longing for the days of Poile soon. :/
I think you read the cap breakdown wrong. Years 4 through 6 his cap hit is next to nothing. Years 2 and 3 are the only bad years.
So they’re not planning on being competitive again until the 2026/2027 season?
Certainly looks that way
I don’t understand this buyout at all. Did Duchene make a pass at Trotz’s daughter or something?
@PyramidHeadcrab – Mr. Uncoachable wanted GMDP’s prized Gibson.
There are only two ways this makes sense to me. Either they feel there are assets they can acquire this year because they have cap space. Or they are doing a Blackhawk style 100% tank job. Honestly, it feels more like the tank job.
If they were going to tank, last year was the year to do it. And if they’re keeping Saros, they’re not going to tank. But for a team that has trouble scoring to move one of their top three, does not make sense…
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Looks like they may be stuck in the mushy draft middle as a fringe playoff team for a while.
You are correct in identifying Saros as the tank indicator. If they move him you can expect a full on tank. I don’t know. But that feels like where this is all headed. I think this was always a possibility, but the difficulty Trotz had moving up in the draft made it clear to him there is only one way to get your hands on talent like that, and that’s to earn those picks the old fashioned way.
A competitive team in 2026-27 feels about right. I think Trotz could have played this differently, but more than anything I blame the ownership group for not firing Poile a full year earlier. If they had, the Predators might have had a crack at some real talent in this year’s draft! Now move Saros and let’s have a top 3 draft pick for a few years.
Someone tell me again how great max term contracts are for the teams that hand them out?
And yeah, Nashville is doomed to the mushy middle at best for a while now. This sets them up for some colossal dead cap space: $9 MM this year, $12 MM next year, $9 MM in 2026, $3.5 MM in 2027. Minnesota Wild, move over.
The minute They signed him .. This was going to be outcome. He was his most useful. When he played on fourth line for Canada was energy player. He has never been first line center. Colorado made mistake When they kept him instead O ‘reilly . History shows which was clearly better player. If you sign him for 2 million for couple years you maybe happy.
ANAHEIM…….