Don’t let the offseason momentum stop now if you’re the Nashville Predators. There’s still objectives to be met as Restricted Free Agents are due qualifying offers just two days before free agency opens up.
The Predators have an extensive list of RFAs to make qualifying offers to, otherwise they will become unrestricted free agents and risk losing them to other teams:
Today at 5pm ET is the deadline for clubs to submit Qualifying Offers to all their Restricted Free Agents and 10.2.c players in order to retain their signing rights.
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) July 11, 2022
Any player who does not receive a QO today becomes a UFA.
QO's are not open for acceptance prior to July 13.
Trenin and Novak lead list of RFA’s for Nashville Predators
Yakov Trenin leads the list of priority if you’re the Nashville Predators. He’s gradually progressed into a vital player on both ends of the ice over the past three seasons. He blossomed on the scoring front last season by puttting up 17 goals in 80 games.
Trenin’s 17 goals were sixth on the team, while also showing his physical side by amassing 191 hits (fourth on the team).
The Predators will almost certainly extend a qualifying offer to Trenin as he should return to the Predators’ successful third line next season alongside Colton Sissons and Tanner Jeannot. If the Predators aren’t able to sign a viable top-six forward in free agency, then perhaps Jeannot is called up to the top-six. That’s a debate to be had after free agency.
Trenin should get a fair deal from the Predators around $2M, or slightly more, and stick around for at least a couple more seasons. He’s just 25-years-old, and should continue to get better as he enters his prime years of his career. Don’t lose this guy if you’re the Predators.
Despite the sweep to the Colorado Avalanche, Trenin showed up for sure in that series by posting three goals and averaging over 15 minutes of ice time.
The newly-acquired John Leanord is an RFA and will definitely receive a contract from the Predators. He was obtained in the Luke Kunin trade a few days ago, and has some upside for the prospect pool.
We have to see what happens with David Farrance, another RFA. For a while now he’s been considered the top defensive prospect in the Predators’ system, but he’s hit a little bit of a speed bump in his path to the NHL. He should still get a qualifying offer from the Predators.
Other RFAs to watch on the Predators are goalie Devin Cooley, foward Matt Luff, forward Tommy Novak, forward Cole Smith, forward Jimmy Huntington, forward Kole Sherwood and forward Brayden Burke.
Novak is another important player to get re-signed. He has NHL upside and plays center, an important position for the Predators to stay focused on. Novak has a moderate chance to return to the Predators bottom-six next season if he is retained.
It’s been a hightly productive offseason for Preds
This has been a very productive offseason for the Nashville Predators so far as they got the biggest priority finally taken care of by re-signing Filip Forsberg to an eight-year, $68M deal that runs all the way to 2030.
The Predators also made a rather significant trade by obtaining Ryan McDonagh from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a salary cap dump, and cleared up roster space by trading Mathieu Olivier for an additional 2022 draft pick.
Speaking of the draft, the fact that the Predators got what was widely-regarded the steal of the first round by drafting Joakim Kemell adds to the list of positive offseason moves this team has made since the season ended.
As previously mentioned, Kunin was traded as the Predators added Leonard to hopefully boost their prospect pool even more. Another move that opens up space for an additional free agent or trade.
Trenin and Novak are the biggest priorities on the RFA front today. Get those two signed for sure, and then we’ll turn our attention to Wednesday and the free agency market.
So far though, it’s an A+ grade for the Nashville Predators offseason. They’ve clearly gotten better for 2022-23 and have a vision of getting better now and not going through an arduous rebuild.