The Nashville Predators got a major roadblock out of the way yesterday when they signed 24-year-old wing Viktor Arvidsson to a seven-year deal. The $29.75MM signing locks up another franchise cornerstone at a reasonable price. General manager David Poile has successfully worked out similar deals in the past that have locked up others like Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis. In fact those five cornerstones on a Stanley Cup finalist team, will only cost them a $20.5MM cap hit combined next season, tweets LNH.com’s Arpon Basu.
However, the work doesn’t end there, according to NBC Sports Cam Tucker, who says the team now must turn their attention to No. 1 center Ryan Johansen. The 24-year-old center had a big year for Nashville, putting up 14 goals and 61 points. If it hadn’t been for a thigh injury in the playoffs, he could have shown his value to the team even more, although he still played in 14 playoff games, putting up 13 points. Despite that injury, Johansen should get quite a raise from a year ago.
Johansen, who was acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in early 2016 for Seth Jones, signed a three-year bridge deal at $4MM per season while with Columbus. Now, he should be up for an even bigger deal. The Predators should have more than $14.5MM to spend (according to CapFriendly), so money shouldn’t be an issue for Poile.