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Pontus Aberg, Ryan Spooner Staying In Europe

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A pair of former NHLers are staying across the Atlantic Ocean for the 2022-23 campaign. Swedish winger Pontus Aberg has signed a one-year agreement with BK Mladá Boleslav in the Czech Extraliga, while Canadian forward Ryan Spooner is remaining in the KHL with Dinamo Minsk.

Aberg, 28, attempted an NHL comeback last season when he signed a one-year deal with the Ottawa Senators. However, he was waived prior to the season and spent 17 games with the Belleville Senators before mutually terminating his contract to return to Sweden with Timrå IK in the SHL. He netted two goals, nine assists, and 11 points in those 17 games with Belleville. Aberg’s last taste of NHL action came in 2019-20, where he got a five-game look with the Toronto Maple Leafs, registering one assist. A second-round pick of the Nashville Predators in 2012, Aberg could really never hold onto a full-time NHL role, shuffling between the NHL and AHL in nearly every season he spent in North America.

Spooner hasn’t been in the league since 2018-19, when he split the season between the New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers, and Vancouver Canucks. He’s been one of the best scorers in the KHL since then, and after one year in Yekaterinburg, he returns to Dinamo Minsk where he led the club in scoring in 2019-20 with 37 points in 43 games. Spooner had a few NHL stretches where it looked like he could become a great middle-six depth piece, especially when he scored 41 points in 59 games between the Rangers and Boston Bruins in 2017-18. His offense disappeared the next season, however, and he hasn’t returned to North America. Now 30 years old, it’s unlikely he ever will.

Offseason Checklist: Nashville Predators

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With the offseason in full swing aside from the two teams in the Stanley Cup Final, it’s time to examine what each squad will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at the Predators.

This was supposed to be a season of transition for Nashville.  At least, so it seemed.  They got weaker on paper over the summer and it looked to be the start of at least a small rebuild.  However, several underachieving veterans had bounce-back years and the end result was the Predators making the playoffs and then being swept by Colorado.  GM David Poile likes the term “competitive transition” as it relates to the state of his team so their checklist this summer keeps that in mind.

Add Impact Pieces

With the Predators looking to stay in the playoff hunt, they’ll need to put their cap space to good use this year.  With over $23MM at their disposal, they have some room to add a key player or two even after re-signing their own free agents.

Up front, their top six is still fairly thin with several question marks.  Matt Duchene had a career year with 43 goals and 43 assists.  At the age of 31, can he repeat that type of performance or was this just a season where everything went right?  Ryan Johansen had his best season since coming to Nashville back in 2016 while Mikael Granlund was only a few points shy of matching his career-best.  There is a question of sustainability for all three of those players and even if there wasn’t, another top-six forward to fill the role vacated by Viktor Arvidsson following his trade last summer is needed.

There was a time when Nashville had the best defense corps in the NHL.  That isn’t the case anymore.  Instead, the average fan would have a hard time naming anyone beyond Norris finalist Roman Josi and steady veteran Mattias Ekholm.  It’s not a particularly deep group and a top-four rearguard to push one of Dante Fabbro or Alexandre Carrier onto the third pairing alongside the recently-extended Jeremy Lauzon would go a long way towards shoring up that unit even if it doesn’t bring them back to the days of being the best group in the league.

Do these moves alone vault Nashville into contender status?  No, but if they want to stay where they are or give themselves a shot at moving up a bit in the standings, these would certainly help their chances.

Re-Sign Forsberg

Duchene wasn’t the only veteran to have a career year this season as Filip Forsberg did as well, notching 42 goals and 42 assists despite missing 13 games due to a stint in COVID protocol and an upper-body injury.  There’s never a bad time to set new benchmarks but the year before hitting unrestricted free agency for the first time is certainly a great time and that’s what Forsberg did.  The two sides engaged in talks off and on during the season but couldn’t reach an agreement and Poile held off on trading him at the deadline.

This is one of the most important contract negotiations in franchise history.  Forsberg has been a fixture in their lineup for eight years and the possibility of him jumping ship to another team less than a month from now has to be concerning.  It would certainly go a long way towards derailing their competitive transition.  Forsberg’s camp knows this and will try to wield that in discussions.

As for what the cost of a new deal will be, it won’t be cheap.  Forsberg is coming off a six-year, $36MM deal and as a 40-goal scorer, he can command considerably more than that; a contract in the $8MM to $9MM range should be achievable for him.  On top of that, a max-term agreement is certainly doable as well.  For Nashville, that’s eight years as long as it’s done before the start of free agency and seven years for everyone else.  Forsberg turns 28 this summer and a max-term deal for a winger coming off a career year that will make him the highest-paid forward on the team is not an ideal combination for the Predators but it’s one they’ll have to bite the bullet on to keep him in the fold.

Bring In Goalie Depth

With Juuse Saros, Nashville has their starter in place for the next three seasons on a below-market contract.  With Yaroslav Askarov, they believe they have their future starter in place.  Most teams would love that combination but the Predators still have some work to do between the pipes.

Poile brought in David Rittich to serve as Saros’ backup this season with the hopes he could rediscover his form from a few years ago.  That didn’t happen as he had a save percentage of just .889 in 17 appearances.  With Saros injured for the playoffs, Rittich faltered quickly, forcing head coach John Hynes to turn to third-stringer Connor Ingram who had all of three career NHL appearances up to that point.  Rittich is unlikely to return and while Ingram is on a one-way deal for next season, are the Predators ready to make him their backup?

If not, they’ll need to turn back to the free agent market and instead of looking for a low-cost option, they would be wise to aim a little higher and get a more proven second option to take some of the pressure off Saros and give them some extra injury insurance.  On the other hand, if they do want to go with Ingram, then adding a veteran third-string option becomes a must.  Askarov will play his first full season in North America next season and adding a veteran that can be called up as the backup when injuries hit to not interrupt Askarov’s development would be a wise move.  Either way, Poile will be goalie shopping next month.

Utilize An Unlikely Trade Asset

When Nashville dealt Ryan Ellis to Philadelphia last summer, they hoped that Philippe Myers would be a capable replacement.  Let’s just say that didn’t happen.  Instead, the 25-year-old struggled mightily when he was in the lineup, was a frequent healthy scratch, and cleared waivers before the trade deadline.  From there, they didn’t even bother sending him to their own AHL affiliate as he was loaned to Toronto instead.  And yet, despite all of that, he is one of Nashville’s more intriguing trade chips this summer.

Myers has one year left on his current contract at $2.55MM which, for someone that can’t crack an NHL roster, seems like the type of deal teams should be doing their best to stay away from, not acquire.  It’s a lock to be bought out.  But his contract is heavily backloaded and since he’s only 25, the buyout cost is one-third instead of the usual two-thirds.  The end result is that whoever buys him out this summer will receive a cap credit of $617K.  Yes, a team could increase their cap space next season by buying Myers out while they’d only have to eat a $633K cap charge in 2023-24.  Who could use some extra cap space this summer for a total cash outlay of $633K?  The short answer is a lot of teams.

There isn’t much precedent for a trade like this.  Toronto picked up Jared Cowen from Ottawa in 2016 who was in that situation but it was part of a nine-player swap which makes it difficult to ascertain his standalone value in that deal.  But with a lot of teams looking for cap space, it stands to reason that Myers will actually have some value this summer.  Even if it’s only for a mid-round pick in the end, getting an asset for someone that’s clearly on his way out the door would be a good way to start Nashville’s summer roster movement.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.  Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Carter Hutton Retires From NHL

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A journeyman netminder has hung up his skates today. Veteran Carter Hutton announced his retirement from the NHL today, talking with Tom Annelin of the Chronicle Journal.

Speaking with Annelin today, Hutton had the following to say on his decision:

Honestly, I’ve been preparing myself for hockey to be over in some aspect for a while… The NHL has evolved into a young man’s league. The average age is now in the early 20s, so I know that this job wouldn’t be a lifelong one for me. Ultimately, I suffered an ankle injury in early 2021, which made the decision a lot easier for me. It restricted a lot of the mobility I needed to be as effective as I once was. This, compiled with a few other things helped me decide on retirement.

The news isn’t surprising in any aspect. Hutton appeared in just three games at the beginning of the season with the Arizona Coyotes, earning a 0-2-0 record and .741 save percentage. He spent the majority of the rest of the season injured before he was dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs ahead of the trade deadline for injury insurance there, but the team loaned him back to the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners. He did spend a few days at Leafs practice, however.

An undrafted free agent, Hutton had a long and arduous path to NHL success. Hutton spent four years developing at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell before signing an entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks for 2010-11. Hutton was the backup for the AHL affiliate in Worcester that season, posting a .902 save percentage. A restricted free agent, he was left unqualified and settled for an AHL contract with the Rockford IceHogs in 2011-12.

Strong play there got him an NHL contract later in the season and again with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2012-13, when he made his NHL debut at age 27. As an unrestricted free agent in 2013, the Nashville Predators snapped up Hutton in free agency, where he broke into the NHL and never looked back. After stops with the Predators, St. Louis Blues, Buffalo Sabres, and Coyotes, Hutton retires with a career 94-90-27 record in 235 games played (207 starts), .908 save percentage, and 2.76 goals-against average, and 13 shutouts. For an undrafted free agent who wasn’t a full-time NHLer until 28, it’s an improbable and impressive resumé.

Nashville Predators Extend Jeremy Lauzon

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A busy day of signings continues today. The Nashville Predators announced they’ve extended defenseman Jeremy Lauzon to a four-year contract worth $8MM in total, carrying an average annual value of $2MM.

Nashville acquired Lauzon at the Trade Deadline this season from the Seattle Kraken in exchange for a second-round pick (49th overall in the 2022 draft). He was Seattle’s expansion draft selection from the Boston Bruins.

Strictly a bottom-of-the-lineup player, Lauzon tallied two goals and seven points in 66 games combined between Seattle and Nashville this season. While he was in the lineup more consistently in Nashville, he often found himself as a healthy scratch with the Kraken. He averaged 17:40 of ice time per game this season, only a few seconds above his career average.

The veteran of 142 NHL games has some serious career stability now. He is decent defensively at even strength but has struggled on the penalty kill when used there, making more an ideal complementary player to a more high-end, offensively-inclined defenseman. If all goes well, he could end up being a good, cheap solution to partner with Roman Josi, but that’s assuming he maintains his solid defensive play post-trade. He’s known to be inconsistent at times, which raises a few red flags around the four-year term for this deal.

However, Lauzon is still just 25, and will still likely be in his prime at age 29 when the deal expires in 2026. It’s somewhat of a risky deal since the $2MM isn’t fully buriable in the minors, but it could just as well work out just fine. Lauzon was slated to become a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this offseason, and he’ll be an unrestricted free agent at the contract’s end.

Nashville Predators Sign Markus Nurmi

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The Nashville Predators have signed forward Markus Nurmi to an entry-level contract. PuckPedia reports that the deal will carry an NHL cap hit of $842.5K. Originally selected by the Ottawa Senators in 2016, Nurmi never signed with the team and became an unrestricted free agent when his draft rights expired in 2020. Because of his age, he will be limited to a one-year contract. CapFriendly notes that the contract has a base salary of $750,000, a $92,500 signing bonus, and $82,500 performance bonus with $70,000 in minor salary.

Drafted 163rd overall back then, Nurmi is a very interesting prospect six years later. The offense has finally emerged for the 6’4″ forward, and he scored 20 goals and 39 points in 56 games for TPS in the top Finnish league this season. Even that production was surpassed by his playoff output when he racked up 19 points in 18 games, leading the entire league.

Given that he is still just 23 (24 in June), and has a perfect blend of size, skill, and offensive production, it’s no surprise that he’s found an opportunity in North America. Whether he can keep up with the speed and physicality of the NHL game and become more than just a depth option is another story entirely, and a challenge that many players have failed at over the years.

At worst though, this is a waste of a contract slot for a year, and the Predators move on after it expires. At best, they’ve added an NHL option off the free agent market that will still be a restricted free agent and under team control next summer.

Nashville Predators Extend John Hynes

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May 19: Predators general manager David Poile officially announced a two-year contract extension for Hynes today.

May 18: After reaching the playoffs for the third time in as many years under John Hynes, the Nashville Predators faced some uncertainty at the Head Coach position, with John Hynes on an expiring contract that included a one-year team option. However, those concerns seem to be gone, as The Athletic’s Adam Vingan tweets that he believes the club has agreed to a multi-year extension with Hynes to keep him behind the bench in Nashville. The contract has yet to be officially confirmed, though that may be a topic of discussion when Hynes and General Manager David Poile meet the media on Thursday (link).

In three seasons under Hynes, Nashville has failed to miss the playoffs, but has also failed to win a playoff round. The team lost in the first round this year to the Colorado Avalanche and last year to the Carolina Hurricanes. The team also lost the qualifying round in the bubble in 2020 to the Arizona Coyotes. Despite the success, some had wondered if Hynes would be back with Nashville next season given the team’s failure to have playoff success in that time. Given those concerns, a multi-year extension when the team had the ability to exercise a one-year option, is all the more interesting.

Perhaps one of Hynes’ biggest strengths as a coach can be seen in his stars’ ability to elevate their game under him. There may be no better of an example of that than this year, where Filip Forsberg had a career high 84 points, 20 more than his previous career-high of 64, in just 69 games. A struggling Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen both rebounded this year, with Duchene hitting career-highs in goals, with 43 and points, with 86. Defenseman Roman Josi, already a superstar in his own right, shattered his previous career-high 65 points with 96 this year, a mark that was among the best seasons ever for a defenseman.

Turning back to Hynes’ days as the head coach of the New Jersey Devils, he saw a rebuilding New Jersey Devils team to a playoff berth in 2017-18, which featured a Hart Trophy season from Taylor Hall, who had a career-best 93 points, a mark he has not been able to repeat since. Though he has yet to win a playoff series as a head coach, Hynes has proven that he is capable of getting the most out of his star players. The Predators are also, notably, a franchise that has several high-profile, star players, three of whom (Josi, Duchene, and Johansen) are signed to long-term contracts. Another of those stars, Forsberg, Nashville is in the process of trying to sign long-term.

This story will be updated as more details emerge on the expected extension. Hynes and Poile will address the media for their end-of-season availability Thursday morning.

Nashville Predators Sign Yaroslav Askarov

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Today seems to be the day for top goalie prospects to sign their entry-level contracts. Just after the Minnesota Wild inked their own top goalie prospect, Jesper Wallstedt, to his entry-level deal, the Nashville Predators have announced that they have signed their own top goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov to a three-year entry-level contract. Askarov signed an AHL tryout contract with the Predators’ affiliate Milwaukee Admirals earlier this month, indicating that his full signing with the Predators would be coming soon. Now, the move is official.

Askarov, 19, is one of the top goalie prospects in all of hockey and also one of the highest-drafted goaltenders in recent years. Askarov was the eleventh pick in the 2020 draft, the highest pick since current Maple Leafs starter Jack Campbell went eleventh to the Dallas Stars at the 2010 draft. Askarov has thus far spent his career developing in his native Russia, where he has starred in limited action at the KHL level. In nine games for SKA St. Petersburg in 2020-21, Askarov posted a .951 save percentage and a 1.21 goals-against-average, numbers that are reminiscent of Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin’s KHL dominance but at a far younger age. (Albeit with a far smaller sample size of games.) Askarov got into six KHL games this season, posting a .913 save percentage and a 1.81 goals-against-average.

With Vezina finalist Juuse Saros already entrenched as Nashville’s number-one goaltender and under contract for at least the next three seasons, Askarov will have plenty of time to acclimate himself to goaltending in North America and should be afforded ample opportunity to develop at his own pace. Too many prospects have had their development tracks derailed by teams rushing them to the NHL out of necessity, due to that team needing the talent the prospect brings, however raw it may be at the time. Thankfully for the Predators, though, with Saros in net, it’s unlikely that will be an issue for Askarov. Instead, Predators fans can get excited about the next few years of Milwaukee Admirals hockey featuring one of the most promising young goaltenders in the sport.

Mikael Granlund Joins Finland At World Championships

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The Finnish contingent at the 2022 IIHF World Championships just got notably stronger. The IIHF announced today that Finland added Nashville Predators forward Mikael Granlund to their roster.

The news comes after Granlund’s Predators were swept out of the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Colorado Avalanche. Granlund had three assists in four playoff games, capping off what was a great 2021-22 campaign for him with 64 points in 80 regular-season games.

It’s Granlund’s first time representing Finland at this tournament since 2018 when he was a member of the Minnesota Wild. That year, he served as Finland’s captain, potting two goals and seven assists in eight games as the team lost in the quarterfinals.

This time around, he’ll serve as an alternate captain alongside former NHL defenseman Sami Vatanen and national team veteran Marko Anttila. They sit behind captain Valtteri Filppula as the NHL veteran attempts to join the Triple Gold club with a gold medal in this tournament. Finland got off to a 1-0 start yesterday, defeating Norway 5-0 in their opening game of the Worlds.

2022 Ted Lindsay Award Finalists Announced

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This week, the NHL has started to release the finalists for all the major regular season awards. After the Hart Trophy came out yesterday, the Ted Lindsay Award, given to “the most outstanding player in the NHL” as voted on by members of the NHLPA, is up.

The finalists this year are Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers.

While the Lindsay very often mirrors the Hart, the notable difference is that the finalists are peer-selected. McDavid has already won the trophy three times, even taking it home in 2018 when he somehow finished fifth in Hart voting, despite leading the league in scoring. There’s no doubting his place among his fellow players, widely considered the best player in the world at the moment. After setting new career highs with 44 goals and 123 points, there’s certainly reason to believe they’ve put him on top of the mountain once again.

Matthews has more than a fighting chance though, after becoming just the third player in the salary cap era to score 60 goals in a single season. The Maple Leafs forward is the no-doubt best at putting the puck in the back of the net, and reached a new high with 106 points in just 73 games. Perhaps the front-runner for the Hart this season, it will be interesting to see if the players feel the same about the Toronto sniper.

Josi, meanwhile, is the only one of the three that didn’t end as a finalist for the Hart, as Igor Shesterkin took the third spot yesterday. It shows just how outstanding his season was and how much respect his peers have for the historic 96-point campaign he put together. That’s more than just a good year–it puts Josi among a list of the best offensive defensemen to ever play the game. Whether that was enough to draw the votes to pass the two big centers won’t be revealed until later on but it is still an impressive feat to get named a finalist in a year with so many incredible offensive performances.

Latest On Filip Forsberg

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It was another disappointing exit for Filip Forsberg and the Nashville Predators, losing in the first round for the fourth season in a row. The 27-year-old is now facing a career-defining decision as his offseason begins and free agency approaches. Forsberg will be an unrestricted free agent in July after spending his entire NHL career to this point in a Predators jersey, and didn’t give up much when he spoke to reporters yesterday about the situation:

I’ve said that since day one, the goal is to come back here. And the business side is completely different than the on-ice side, as you guys are aware of, and just kind of have to wait and see and play it out. There has been obviously some progression throughout the season from where we started in September, and me and my agent and David and Brian and the management. There’s going to be an ongoing conversation in the process, and we’ll just have to see where we end up.

You couldn’t script a better regular season to be negotiating on the back of, as Forsberg set career highs with 42 goals and 84 points, all in just 69 games. With so much of his production coming at even-strength (32 goals), there’s likely no limit to the number of teams that could insert him into a lineup and receive a huge offensive boost. With the Predators out, the countdown is on until Forsberg and his representatives get a chance to talk with the rest of the league.

After a decade in Nashville, Forsberg has always maintained that his desire is to stay with the organization that traded for him all those years ago but there have been at least some signs to point to the possibility of him leaving. Namely, the organization quickly worked out multi-year extensions with Mattias Ekholm, Mikael Granlund, and Juuse Saros last summer, deals that eat up quite a bit of cap space moving forward. With Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansen, and Roman Josi also on the books for a combined $25MM per season, it’s not like there is a ton of room to fit in another huge contract.

Still, it’s hard to imagine the Predators offensive attack without Forsberg in the middle of it. He became the franchise leader in goals this season, passing David Legwand in 400 fewer games, and he sits 14th in the entire league since his rookie season. That history–especially buoyed by his exceptional 2021-22 campaign–is going to make Forsberg able to demand a substantial raise on the $6MM he has earned in each of the last six years, and a long-term deal to go with it.

Another thing to remember, and something that potentially could affect negotiations, is general manager David Poile’s aversion to giving out no-trade clauses. The only player on the Nashville roster that holds one is captain Roman Josi, and Forsberg has seen the lack of trade protection play out in recent years with the departures of Viktor Arvidsson and Ryan Ellis. There’s almost no doubt that he could secure a full no-movement clause elsewhere if he decides to test the market later this summer.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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