The Nashville Predators continue to re-sign their young restricted free agents, this time inking goaltender Juuse Saros to a three-year $4.5MM ($1.5MM AAV) contract. That leaves just Miikka Salomaki as the team’s lone unsigned RFA after Ryan Hartman also signed earlier today.
Just like Hartman’s $875K deal, this appears to be an incredible bargain for the Predators. While Saros is still technically a backup goaltender as long as Pekka Rinne continues to put up Vezina-winning seasons, he also has been one of the league’s best netminders the last two seasons. Posting a .925 save percentage in 26 appearances, he ranked ninth in the entire league among goaltenders who saw at least 20 games. He and Rinne formed one of the best tandems in the league, and could again this season for a reasonable combined cap hit of $8.5MM.
It’s the final two years that could be really interesting for the Predators, as Rinne’s current contract expires after the 2018-19 season. If the team decides not to extend a contract to Rinne (who will be 36 at the end of the season) they would still have a potentially elite starter for an incredibly low cap hit of $1.5MM. The fact that Saros is still a restricted free agent at the end of this deal makes it even more impressive, as they are almost guaranteed to not have to pay him a big contract until he takes over as the full-time starter. That’s a perfect situation to be in for the Predators, who are right in the middle of a Stanley Cup contention window that looks like it will be wide open for quite some time. Though there are big extensions to come for the likes of Ryan Ellis and Roman Josi over the next two years, the rest of their core is already locked in to reasonably priced, if not bargain-basement contracts.
For Saros, he gets the chance to continue developing under an exemplary starter in Rinne and should still get a healthy raise when his contract expires. He’ll be 26 when the deal expires and on his final year of restricted free agency, meaning any long-term deal would be buying out almost exclusively UFA seasons. While that is a fine situation for the Predators, it still leaves Saros with plenty of earning potential for his career and a good chance to spend it behind a solid defense in Nashville.
big discount for the preds