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Nashville Predators Sign Tanner Molendyk, Kalan Lind

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The Nashville Predators became the third team to sign a 2023 draft pick to their entry-level contract today, signing defenseman Tanner Molendyk to a three-year, entry-level contract. Financial terms were not disclosed. They immediately followed Molendyk’s announcement with that of second-round pick Kalan Lind, who’s also signed a three-year ELC.

Moldenyk joins Columbus Blue Jackets center Adam Fantilli and Montreal Canadiens defender David Reinbacher as 2023 first-round picks already under contract with their teams.

The 18-year-old from McBride, British Columbia, was selected with the 24th overall pick last week in Nashville. The 5-foot-11, 181-pound blueliner enjoyed an outstanding season with the Saskatoon Blades in the WHL in 2022-23, setting career-highs with nine goals, 28 assists, and 37 points in 67 regular-season games en route to a berth in the Eastern Conference Final.

During the WHL playoffs, Molendyk continued to excel, notching three goals and five assists in 18 games. That was good enough to share the lead for playoff goals among WHL defensemen and finish second in points and assists.

Beyond his league success, Molendyk started off his draft year by representing Canada at the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. In his first-ever national team appearance, he recorded one goal and three assists in five games, winning a gold medal in the process.

It wasn’t Molendyk’s offensive production that warranted a first-round selection, however. Those in the analytics community know better than anyone that he’s an absolute monster in transition, dominating the WHL with his two-way play. An incredibly skilled skater, Molendyk doesn’t ever project to break any team records in terms of points but is as steady as they come in terms of advancing the puck and dominating possession.

Molendyk is expected to return to Saskatoon for his third full WHL season next year, which would slide his entry-level contract to begin in 2024-25 (assuming he plays less than 10 NHL games). He won’t be eligible for AHL assignment until 2025-26, per the NHL-CHL transfer agreement.

Nashville drafted Lind with their fourth pick of the draft and their second of the second round, taking him 46th overall. The 6-foot, 158-pound left wing also played in the WHL, posting good offensive totals with the Red Deer Rebels (16 goals, 28 assists, 44 points in 43 games). One of the few power forwards available in the draft, Lind is a dominant checker whose effort is unmatched in most situations. He carries solid offensive smarts and playmaking capabilities, too – which became apparent with his over-point-per-game production.

Nashville Predators Sign Jasper Weatherby

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The Nashville Predators got some fortification for their center depth chart today, signing UFA forward Jasper Weatherby to a one-year, two-way contract. Per the team, the contract carries the league minimum $775K cap hit. PuckPedia reports he’ll earn $115K at the AHL level.

A 2018 fourth-round selection of the San Jose Sharks, Nashville will be Weatherby’s third NHL organization in a matter of months. The 25-year-old Oregon product was traded to the Detroit Red Wings in January after a beyond-disappointing AHL showing with the San Jose Barracuda to start 2022-23.

Weatherby actually captured a stable fourth-line spot on the Sharks for the better part of 2021-22, recording five goals and 11 points in 50 games. It was impressive work for a late-round pick in his first professional season after wrapping up a three-year stint at the University of North Dakota, which saw him record 24 points in 29 games during his final season.

This past season was rather unkind to Weatherby, however. He failed to make the Sharks out of camp and proceeded to score just three goals and six points in 39 games to start the season with the Barracuda, spearheading the move to Detroit. With the Wings’ AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids, Weatherby still posted just 11 points in 31 games.

He’ll aim for a career reset in Nashville, looking to play a more integral role down the middle for their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. With the team signing Ryan O’Reilly and needing to save spots for promising youngsters down the middle like Cody Glass, Thomas Novak, and Juuso Parssinen, Weatherby’s chances of making the roster are slim, even with his 50 games of NHL experience in San Jose.

Weatherby will be a restricted free agent again next offseason, this time with arbitration rights. Detroit opted not to issue him a qualifying offer last week, making him available to all 32 teams on the open market.

Nashville Predators Re-Sign Alexandre Carrier

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Per PuckPedia, the Nashville Predators have re-signed RFA defenseman Alexandre Carrier to a one-year, $2.5MM contract for 2023-24. The deal walks him directly to unrestricted free agency next offseason.

Carrier has been a solid contributor on Nashville’s blue line, posting solid two-way numbers and succeeding as a puck-moving defender who has decent smarts. The right-shot defender did take a considerable step back on the scoresheet in 2022-23, though, posting just nine points in 43 games after a 30-point campaign the year prior. The upside he flashed, though, warranted a qualifying offer and an extension from Nashville.

The one-year contract provides an intriguing dynamic for both Carrier and the Predators. Nashville is allowing him to set himself up nicely for a payday as the cap skyrockets up next season if he has another strong campaign, although he may not get much upward mobility in the lineup to have point-producing opportunities, especially with Tyson Barrie in the fold as the team’s main secondary offensive defenseman behind Roman Josi.

Nashville Predators Extend Cody Glass, Sign Grosenick, Angello

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The Nashville Predators have signed rising center Cody Glass to a two-year contract extension carrying a $2.5MM AAV, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Additionally, the Predators have added to their minor-league depth, signing goaltender Troy Grosenick to a one-year, $775K contract (worth $175K in the minors, per PuckPedia), as well as forward Anthony Angello to a two-year, $1.55MM contract with an AAV of $775K at the NHL. Both contracts given to Grosenick and Angello are two-way deals.

Glass is coming off a breakout year that saw him lock down a full-time NHL spot for the first time.  The 24-year-old played in 72 games last season, picking up 14 goals and 21 assists while averaging nearly 15 minutes of playing time a night.  That earned him a spot on Canada’s entry at the Worlds where he added four assists in ten contests.  While that’s still not a great year for someone not far removed from being the sixth-overall pick in 2017, it was certainly a step in the right direction.

This contract basically represents a second bridge contract for Glass, giving both sides to see if his production last season is a sign of things to come or if it was more of a one-off.  With both Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen out of the picture now, it stands to reason that Glass should have a bigger opportunity next season.  He will still be RFA-eligible at the end of this deal and with the contract paying out an even $2.5MM per season, that will also represent his qualifying offer in 2025.

Grosenick is no stranger to the Predators organization having spent parts of three seasons in their system before moving on in 2020.  Since then, he has bounced around as a third-string option in Los Angeles, Boston, and Philadelphia.  Last year, the 33-year-old played in just six games with Lehigh Valley, posting a 3.32 GAA along with a .892 SV%.  With Yaroslav Askarov set to command the bulk of the playing time, Grosenick is likely to be Nashville’s fourth-stringer next season but could be the one recalled to cover for short-term injuries to either Juuse Saros or Kevin Lankinen.

As for Angello, the 27-year-old was acquired back in March and finished the season strong with AHL Milwaukee, collecting seven goals and five assists in just 17 games.  However, Angello wasn’t able to carry over that level of success in the playoffs as he was limited to just three points in 16 playoff contests.  Nevertheless, the Preds have decided to bring him back where he will serve as injury recall depth next season.

Nashville Predators Sign Gustav Nyquist

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Winger Gustav Nyquist has signed a two-year deal with the Nashville Predators worth $3.185MM per season, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

In a surprise twist to free agency day that not many expected, the Predators continue to pull in talent to fill out their NHL roster. One of the more unheralded players in the league, Nyquist is an above-average middle-six option for most teams. Finishing off a four-year, $22MM contract signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets back in 2019, Nyquist finished his year with the Minnesota Wild after being acquired at the deadline.

Hampered by injuries last season, Nyquist made a great return to the NHL, scoring five points in his last three games of the year. Following the Wild into the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, Nyquist scored another five points, all assists, in the team’s opening-round matchup with the Dallas Stars.

The signing of Nyquist gives the Predators an incredible amount of flexibility headed into next season. The new General Manager of the team, Barry Trotz, has already indicated that he plans on the team giving much more ice time to some of their younger players. However, if those players don’t play up to expectations this season, Nyquist is an option on the wing that can play on the team’s top three lines.

Nashville Predators To Sign Ryan O’Reilly

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The Nashville Predators have made the biggest splash of the day so far, signing former Conn Smythe Trophy winner Ryan O’Reilly to a four-year contract worth $4.5MM per season, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

While many expected the trade of Ryan Johansen to Colorado and yesterday’s Matt Duchene buyout to signal a rebuild-like direction for Nashville under new GM Barry Trotz, today’s signings of O’Reilly and defenseman Luke Schenn suggest otherwise.

At 32 years of age, adding a Conn Smythe winner in Ryan O’Reilly is firmly a win-now signing. O’Reilly is at his most valuable in the postseason, and is talents would be wasted on a club building for some distant future rather than an immediate playoff run.

O’Reilly has long been regarded as one of the top two-way centers in hockey, though his form in St. Louis earlier this season did raise some concerns about how his offense will age as he gets deeper into his thirties. O’Reilly scored 58 points in 2021-22 but just 19 in 40 games to start the year with the Blues.

He did fare much better after a mid-season deal to Toronto, so Nashville will undoubtedly be hoping that his Toronto form is more indicative of what they’ll be getting for the next four years.

If nothing else, the addition of O’Reilly will be a huge benefit to the Predators’ current crop of inexperienced young centers, such as Cody Glass, Juuso Parssinen, and Thomas Novak. If O’Reilly can help those pivots grow into quality NHLers while also playing up to the standard he’s established throughout his career, a $4.5MM price tag will feel like a bargain.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Luke Schenn To Sign With Nashville Predators

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The Nashville Predators are signing veteran defenseman Luke Schenn to a three-year deal worth $2.75MM per season, according to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli.

This is a major coup for Schenn, who has secured a massive pay raise from the $850k he earned this past season. He’s now secured a quality annual paycheck for three seasons where he’ll be in his mid-thirties, a rarity for defensive defensemen like Schenn.

He’s certainly earned the raise, though, as he’s had a career renaissance over the past few seasons. In 2018-19 Schenn played in the AHL for the first time in his career, actually skating more games in the American League than the NHL. But after signing with the Tampa Bay Lightning Schenn re-emerged as an NHL depth defenseman, even playing a cameo role on two Stanley Cup-winning teams.

That earned him a more regular job on the Vancouver Canucks blueline, where he re-established himself as a physical, defensively competent defenseman. His ice time jumped up to over 17 minutes a night, and he was eventually dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs for their playoff push.

In Nashville, Schenn will be a relied-upon defensive defenseman who should be a regular face on their penalty kill. While it’s certainly a risk for a team to hand this kind of term to a player like Schenn at Schenn’s age, Nashville has certainly upgraded its defense at least in the immediate term and did not pay an exorbitant cost to do so.

Nashville Predators Buy Out Matt Duchene

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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

Latest On Predators RFAs

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  • Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman cites colleague Jeff Marek to report that the two restricted free agents the Nashville Predators will issue qualifying offers are center Cody Glass and defenseman Alexandre Carrier. That means notable players such as 2017 first-round pick Cal Foote and capable defensive winger Rasmus Asplund will hit the open market. It’s somewhat a surprise to see Foote go unqualified, seeing that he was recently acquired as part of the Tanner Jeannot trade and does have a first-round pedigree.

Nashville Predators Trying To Acquire Top Five Pick

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This is a huge night for the Nashville Predators franchise, hosting the 2023 NHL Draft – the first under the leadership of new general manager and franchise coaching legend Barry Trotz. Over the past few hours, it’s become clear Trotz is looking to make an earth-shattering move on the draft floor tonight to move up in the first round.

Multiple reports suggest the Predators have called the Montreal Canadiens about trading up to fifth overall, and Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli now reports Nashville’s put goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov into play. The Russian netminder, who was the 11th overall pick in the 2020 draft, is one of the best netminder prospects in the world and posted a .911 save percentage in 48 games with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals this season.

Askarov would make tremendous amounts of sense for the two teams Nashville’s called about in the top five – Montreal and the San Jose Sharks, who Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic says are getting multiple calls about their fourth overall selection. Both teams have a decent pool of goalie prospects but no surefire starter in their future.

It’ll take much more than Askarov to get either of those teams to part with their picks, though. Nashville holds the 15th and 24th overall selections tonight, with the latter acquired from the Edmonton Oilers for Mattias Ekholm. It’ll take at least Askarov plus the 15th pick, potentially a tad more given the game-breaking, franchise-changing talent available with each of the first five picks in this draft.

With Trotz’s public posturing of wanting high-upside, skilled players in Nashville’s prospect pool, it’s fair to wonder if Nashville is targeting Matvei Michkov if they do move up. While there are some concerns about his defensive engagement (depending on who you ask) and obvious off-ice questions given his contract status and geopolitical uncertainty, he’s the highest-upside prospect in this draft not named Connor Bedard.

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