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Three Different Outcomes for Juuse Saros’ Future with Nashville Predators

By Chad Minton

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - FEBRUARY 25: Juuse Saros #74 of the Nashville Predators speaks to teammates Roman Josi #59 and David Rittich #33 prior to a practice session before the 2022 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at Nissan Stadium on February 25, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - FEBRUARY 25: Juuse Saros #74 of the Nashville Predators speaks to teammates Roman Josi #59 and David Rittich #33 prior to a practice session before the 2022 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at Nissan Stadium on February 25, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images) /
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Saros Gets Long-term Contract with the Nashville Predators

This is the outcome I would assume the vast majority of Predators fans are hoping for. That Saros follows along in the glorious footstep of Pekka Rinne, with the major caveat being he wins the ultimate prize of a Stanley Cup for Nashville.

Look, it may be two full seasons down the road, but the Predators front office should already be preparing for every possible scenario and how to make the numbers work for eventually re-signing Saros to a much more expensive deal than his current $5 million cap hit.

For comparison, here is a look at the highest paid goaltenders in the NHL right now:

Highest Cap Hits Among Goaltenders (2023-24)

1. Carey Price (MTL)- $10.5M

2. Sergei Bobrovsky (FLA)- $10M

3. Andrei Vasilevskiy (TB)- $9.5M

4. John Gibson (ANA)- $6.4M

5. Matt Murray (TOR)- $6.25M

T-17th: Juuse Saros (NSH)- $5M

Saros currently has the same cap hit as Thatcher Demko, Linus Ullmark, Jack Campbell, Cal Petersen and Robin Lehner. All quality goaltenders, but you can make a fair argument that Saros leads the crop of goaltenders, with the exception of Ullmark if you have recency bias.

The point is, Saros is going to demand a huge pay increase and will at the very least creep up there ahead of Gibson’s $6.4 million and come close to Andrei Vasilevskiy money.

The market will dictate this, and based off how Saros performs in 2023-24, the Predators need to be prepared to free up a lot of money if they want Saros to follow the same storybook path that Rinne had with Nashville.

This brings me to 2024 and the nine unrestricted free agents that will hit the market, if not re-signed before then. Most notably, as it pertains to Saros’ future, it’s his backup Kevin Lankinen. A backup who is good enough to be a primary starter on a lot of teams, but Nashville worked their magic to sign him to another one-year deal this past offseason.

If you run it back one more year with this duo and Saros again performs at a high level that’s worthy of Vezina Trophy talk, then Lankinen is let go and Saros gets somewhere between $8M and $9M, and maybe more based on the market trend.

A lot of players will have to be let go next offseason if the Predators are going to retain Saros past 2025-26. I don’t think you want to go into Saros’ final year of his contract without being re-signed, that is unless you have another plan in mind.

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