The Nashville Predators have re-signed young defenseman Frederic Allard to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will pay $750K at the NHL level and $70K in the AHL.
Allard, 23, was scheduled to become a restricted free agent after quite an interesting season. Not only did he play half the year in Austria waiting for the AHL season to begin, but he also ended up making his NHL debut with the Predators. Selected 78th overall in 2016, he had found plenty of success through his first three years of professional hockey, racking up 74 points over 181 games with the Milwaukee Admirals. This year he was even better, scoring at a near point-per-game pace through most of the year for the AHL club.
The Predators are going through a serious facelift this season after trading away Viktor Arvidsson and Ryan Ellis, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be extra spots available on the NHL blue line. The team brought Philippe Myers back from the Philadelphia Flyers and still have several other options to fill out the depth chart behind Roman Jose and Mattias Ekholm. There could be some spot duty for Allard this season, but more likely he’ll spend most of 2021-22 in the AHL once again.