Nashville Predators Offseason Grades: Free Agency, Draft, Trades
By Chad Minton
Unrestricted Free Agency: C+
It’s been a pretty underwhelming free agency period for the Nashville Predators, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. They haven’t pushed for any big names or long contracts, except for retaining Mikael Granlund.
Granlund’s four-year deal at $20M caught most of us by surprise. He’ll come back to the team in a huge role in the top-six as one of the team’s main offensive threats. He has a lot of pressure on him to deliver more consistent results offensively in his point production.
The Predators solved their backup goaltender dilemma by getting David Rittich on a modest one-year deal worth $1.25M. Not my first choice, but also not a horrible addition, either. He should be able to do enough in a limited backup role to Juuse Saros.
Nashville Predators
In reality, Rittich is probably just keeping the seat warm until we have more confidence that Connor Ingram is ready for that same role. But this does address the immediate need for a veteran backup, so no qualms about this addition.
The more modest additions are defenseman Matt Tennyson, who is 31-years-old and never really stuck at the NHL level. He’ll provide depth for Milwaukee, but don’t see much else in this addition.
Another one was winger Matt Luff, which I actually like a lot. Brings the Predators some upside at the position and another young player who maybe hasn’t reached their ceiling just yet.
Again, the Predators weren’t in a position to be aggressive in the free agency market due to their rebuilding status and being cautious about long contracts. However, they might have another move coming. As of now, they get a slightly above average grade in this area of the offseason.