Nashville Predators Should Not Resign Wayne Simmonds

The Wayne Simmonds experiment looks like it was a failure, so the Nashville Predators should forget about resigning him.

Since the Nashville Predators acquired his services from the Philadelphia Flyers at the trade deadline, Wayne Simmonds put up a lowly one goal and two assists, totaling three points in seventeen regular season games.

Adding his playoff stats to this does him no good either, as he did not record a point in the two games he played in before being sidelined with an injury for the remaining 4 games of the series.

For a guy who has had multiple 30 goal campaigns in his career, these point totals are alarming, and the fact that they have been on the decline for the past couple seasons has been alarming.

In 2015-16, Simmonds recorded 32 goals and 60 points, which is literally double of what his 17 goals and 30 points were this past season when you combine his Philadelphia Flyers and Nashville Predators stats from this season.

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Simmonds has basically went from a 30 goal scorer to a 30 point scorer, which reminds me of another player who signed a big contract a few years ago: Milan Lucic.

In 2016, the power forward whose game is eerily similar to the likes of Simmonds signed a 7 year, $42M contract with the Edmonton Oilers and was hailed as the replacement for Taylor Hall, the guy they just shipped out to bring in Adam Larsson.

Lucic was coming off scoring a solid 20 goals and 55 points in his age 27 season, which is very much comparable to the aforementioned 2015-16 stat line Simmonds put up in his age 27 season.

The Oilers bit the bullet because they knew he brought in both grit and scoring, and it looked like it worked out after he put up another 20 goal campaign in his first season in Edmonton, but that’s where the wheels fell off.

In his last two seasons, Milan Lucic has combined for 16 goals, 38 assists and 54 points, which isn’t bad if you’re talking about doing it in 82 games, but no… these stats were from a 161 game stretch.

He had the worst season of his career this past season, only registering six goals and 14 assists for 20 points in his age 30 season, which is the same age Wayne Simmonds is now.

Milan Lucic is now getting paid $6M a year to put up fourth line numbers until the year 2023, with a no-movement clause might I add, which is why the Nashville Predators should be cautious with Simmonds.

A dishonorable mention for another Wayne Simmonds comparison would be Andrew Ladd of the New York Islanders, who signed a massive 6 year contract worth $5.5M a year, along with a no trade clause.

Ladd has had some problems staying healthy and even in the games he has played in he hasn’t produced much of anything for the Isles.

Ladd combined for 38 goals, 33 assists and 71 points over the past three seasons, playing in 177 games, which is an absolutely horrible pace.

The 30-year-old Wayne Simmonds isn’t getting any younger or better, which is why the Nashville Predators should just cut their losses and let him walk in free agency.

For the price that Simmonds would be asking for, the Nashville Predators would be better off investing that cap space in a guy like Gustav Nyqvist or Marcus Johanssen, who have a better chance of producing for a longer amount of time.

The Nashville Predators should take these prior cases for consideration and let go of Wayne Simmonds, as it looks like he’s headed in the wrong direction for the rest of his career. A contract extension to him could end up being a massive overpay, which wouldn’t be good whatsoever.