Nashville Predators: Free Agents Who Shouldn’t Be Back Next Season
Cousins, 2022 UFA
2021 Cap Hit: $1.5M
Nick Cousins has spent his last two seasons with the Nashville Predators, and it hasn’t been a complete failure of a free agency addition back in October of 2020. He’s at least filled the role of bringing that phsyicality style that fits the team, but he also brought very little scoring to a team that needs it.
Cousins was on a rather cheap deal when he initially signed for just $1.5M, and I expect him to look for at least that much on the open market again. Maybe he gets even more for the right team.
The point is, the Predators need to open up their roster more for upcoming prospects, and a Cousins departure would help in that.
Cousins has never been a big offensive producer at any of his NHL stops, and it didn’t change with Nashville for two seasons. Just 40 points in 120 games.
I don’t expected Cousins back on the Predators in 2022-23. He didn’t do enough for this team in the areas that really need help in, like scoring, to get re-signed even on a short-term, cheap deal.
Luke Kunin, 2022 RFA
2021 Cap Hit: $2.3M
Roster placement was the main issue with Luke Kunin in 2021-22. It became painfully clear he shouldn’t be on the top line unless there are a rash of injuries. And yet Hynes continued to put up him situations where he failed to produce much offense, and also took a lot of bad penalties.
Kunin was third on the team in penalty minutes with 99, while only producing 22 points. He played in all 82 games, which is impressive on its own.
A player that’s consistently in your top-six can’t be taking that many penalties. It messes up the line chemistry and obviously puts the team in bad situations. Tanner Jeannot and Mark Borowiecki were the only two player that served more penalty minutes, but they also took a lot of fighting majors which skews it.
If Kunin stays on this team next season, which wouldn’t surprise me, then Hynes really needs to find a better spot for him on the roster. Remaining on the top two lines will be baffling, as it was all season.
With Kunin being an RFA, the Predators can choose to send a qualifying offer to him if they want to retain him. However, I think they should let him test the waters and move on from the Kunin experiment.
Open up the lineup ever more to more offensively affective players, via the prospect pool or finding someone on the open market in free agency. Find someone for your top-six that’s not going to put up nearly 100 minutes of penalties while also rarely producing offense.
Matt Benning, 2022 UFA
2021 Cap Hit: $1M
First off, I appreciate everything Matt Benning has done during his time with the Nashville Predators. He’s definitely been an upgrade from past third pairing defensemen before he arrived as a UFA in October 2020.
Looking back on it, this was actually a modestly successful addition by Poile. Benning has brought a little stability at times to the third pairing, and he rarely makes the blunders that leads to the other team scoring.
However, it comes down once again to the logjam at the position, and the Predators having options elsewhere who are more effective that retaining Benning.
I’m really interested in seeing Jeremy Davies getting a more regular role on the NHL level, while the Predators have also experessed interest in keeping RFA Jeremy Lauzon to a deal past 2022.
Lauzon was acquired before the trade deadline for a 2022 second round draft pick, so you better find a way to keep him.
Benning just looks like the odd man out when looking over the rest of the defensive core you expect to come back.
Ben Harpur, 2022 UFA
2021 Cap Hit: $800K
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Predators re-sign Ben Harpur on the cheap once again and keep him primarily in the AHL with the Milwaukee Admirals. With that said, I’d rather just move on from him and wish him best of luck elsewhere.
Harpur has had ample NHL opportunities for the Predators, but has caught notice for way more bad than good. His playing time on the NHL did dwindle significantly this past season after playing in 34 of 56 regular season games in 2020-21, but only 19 of 82 regular season games this past season.
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The writing seems to be on the wall that it’s time to fill that depth role with someone else who can trust more when injuries occur and you have to call someone up. That’s the replacement for Harpur you’re looking for if he isn’t brought back. Shouldn’t be that hard to find that replacement.
Harpur is 27-years-old and notched 53 games for the Predators over the past two seasons, while also appearing in five playoff games for Nashville. Other than dishing out some big hits, he never produced much that warrants keeping him even for a minimum deal.
David Rittich, 2022 UFA
2021 Cap Hit: $1.25M
Look, I feel for David Rittich and how he went out in Game 1 of the Nashville Predators first round disaster against the Colorado Avalanche.
It was like a literal avalanche came crashing down on that team, and he was in the spotlight to get all of the blame filling in for injured Vezina Finalist Juuse Saros.
We all have really bad days at the office, and Rittich had his in front of thousands of screaming fans that want you to fail on the road.
All of this is to say that Rittich was nothing more than a placeholder after Pekka Rinne announced his retirement last offseason. The plan was always to eventually call Connor Ingram up as primary backup to Saros.
After seeing Ingram’s incredible performances, particularly in Game 2, it’s abundantly clear that Rittich isn’t coming back. He should absolutely get another shot at backup for another team, and hopefully he can work his way back up to getting starting opportunities.
Not a great time for him in Nashville for one season, but the guy is a class act and all-around great locker room presence. Another team should sign him pretty quick on the open market.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Everything hinges on what happens with Forsberg. Everything else will start falling into place once the Predators take care of this top priority of ensuring their all-time leading goal scorer sticks around, even if you have to overpay him a bit.
After that, it looks like more youth will be injected into the lineup next season. Look for the Predators to be rather active in free agency this summer.
Per Spotrac, the Nashville Predators have the ninth-most cap space in the NHL at $24.15M. A large chunk of that will be tied up in Forsberg, but the Predators will still have room to operate and be a little aggressive.
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The Predators can’t keep settling for average and just making the playoffs. That’s the overall source of the disdain from the fanbase right now. The fans should want more, but for that to happen then eventually the front office is going to have to stop sticking with the status quo and make some bold decisions.