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The Nashville Predators stole the show on Monday, July 1, and were consensus winners of the start of free agency.
Amid all of the new faces arriving in Nashville, one bit of news went a bit under the radar as the Preds signed goaltender Juuse Saros to a huge eight-year, $61.92 million extension, per NHL.com.
With Saros, who is already 29 years old, locked for eight more years and through his age-37 season, the Predators will field trade calls for their backup netminder, Yaroslav Askarov, as confirmed by general manager Barry Trotz on June 29.
“People are phoning on (Askarov). With us getting close to getting Saros done, obviously the rumors start and you guys have something to write about,” Trotz said with a smile on Saturday. “But goaltending, you can’t have too much of.
“It’s always that slow burn with goalies, where you continue to refine your game and continue to grow your confidence as a goaltender.
“I have to listen to calls, and if there’s something that makes sense for us, then we’ll do it,” Trotz said. “But there’s no timeframe, no urgency on my part.”
Juuse Saros In, Yaroslav Askarov Out of Nashville?
According to Spotrac, the Predators signed Saros to the fifth-largest extension in total value among players at his position. Saros’ $61.92 million deal only ranks behind those of Ilya Sorokin ($66 million), Sergei Bobrovsky ($70 million), Andrei Vasilevskiy ($76 million), and Carey Price ($84 million).
The netminder is coming off back-to-back seasons leading the NHL in shots against and saves. He faced 2,099 shots against and saved 1,928 of them in 2023, and he followed that with 1,845 shots against and 1,672 saves in 2024.
The Predators selected Saros in the fourth round of the 2013 NHL draft and he’s only played for the Nasvhille franchise since that moment.
Saros put up a 35-24-5 record with the Preds in 64 starts through the 2023-24 season posting a .906 save percentage and 2.86 goals-against average.
According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, the Predators were willing to move Saros’ partner-in-crime Askarov before the draft knowing they had secured the veteran netminder to a a long-term deal.
Askarov is under contract through the 2024-25 season with a cap hit of $925,000 in the third and final year of his entry-level deal. He won’t be an unrestricted free agent until 2029.
The Russian netminder, who turned 22 years old on June 16, appeared in two games during the 2023-24 season posting a 1-0-0 record and saving .943 of the shots he saw allowing 1.47 goals on average.
Askarov already played one game (starting in net) a year before when he lost to the Montreal Canadiens in a matchup played on January 2023.
Nashville Makes Huge Free Agency Splash
It’s hard to find a more aggressive team operating at such a high grade of success as the Predators did on Monday, July 1.
Nashville and GM Barry Trotz entered the offseason with hopes of adding a few players to get over the postseason hump next year and that’s exactly what (at least for now and on paper) they did.
The Predators signed free-agent forward Jonathan Marchessault (five-year, $27.5 million contract) from the Vegas Golden Knights and shocked the NHL world by giving former Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos a deal worth $32 million over four seasons.
Both Marchessault and Stamkos arrive in Nashville with Stanley Cups under their belts (one for the former, two for the latter) and coming off goalscoring seasons of 42 and 40 goals respectively.
“This is obviously a very special moment for my family and I, and we couldn’t be more excited to be joining the Nashville Predators organization,” Stamkos said via Zoom on July 1. “There were some rumors flying around that Nashville had signed Jonathan Marchessault, too, and at first I wasn’t sure if it was true.
“He called me and was like, ‘Are you signing in Nashville?’ I thought he was calling because maybe he thought I’d signed here and he wanted to sign here, and then it wasn’t going to work for him, or vice versa. And he said, ‘No Stammer, I’m coming too.’ So, that was a pretty fun surprise today.”
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