Nashville Predators: Grading Every Major Move in 2022 Offseason
Re-signing Lauzon
The first notable decision by Poile this offseason was this one right by getting Jeremy Lauzon re-signed, which was made to shore up the defensive third pairing for the foreseeable future.
Poile locked up Lauzon, who for some reason was traded a second-round pick for, to a four-year contract worth $2M AAV.
Four years is a bit long for a third-pairing defenseman, so this deal is not perfect by any means. However, it’s not what you would call a bad decision, and is very likely to benefit the Predators for the next few seasons.
Many of the recent past seasons for the Predators have shown that you need third-pairing defensemen as much as top-pairing ones, and Lauzon should be a reliable presence for the next four years.
In his time in Nashville after the most recent trade deadline, Lauzon has certainly played exactly as you would want for a player under his contract, and he also has a cannon of a shot that does not get talked about enough.
Lauzon also is only 25, so he should continue to track upward throughout his contract. With how cheap the contract is for the player in question, we can certainly live with the four-year length, but ideally it would only be two or three years.