Nashville Predators: Grading Every Major Move in 2022 Offseason
Disaster avoided as Forsberg gets a new contract (finally)
In what could be described as one of the more dramatic and stressful contract negotiations in Nashville Predators history, they eventually fulfilled their biggest offseason objective of re-signing Forsberg to an eight-year contract.
It took a long time, but when we really look at it, this is a contract that you can say is really good for both parties involved.
Forsberg wanted the contract to be on the high side of the $8M-$9M per year range, and Poile wanted it on the low side, so they met in the middle at $8.5M. Forsberg also wanted a full no-movement clause throughout, while Poile would have only wanted a modified no-trade clause, so they compromised and decided on a modified no-trade clause for the final two years, while the rest contains a no-movement clause.
It really seemed the whole time that Forsberg did want to work things out to stay in Nashville, and given how the contract worked out, it is much easier to just chalk it up to both sides doing what they do in contract negotiations.
That being said, it is still not good that Poile let it come down to four days before free agency, as he should have never tried to play hardball given that Forsberg did not want above $9M per year on the deal.
At this point though, the Predators are happy and relieved that it all worked out, and the contract itself is a good one. But the way in which it worked out did not have to be so complicated and messy.