Top six winger finally signs, surprisingly for less money than expected; did Kyle Dubas miss the boat?
One of the biggest remaining free agents has finally chosen his new home, just a little over a week after the opening of free agency. According to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, Swiss winger Nino Niederreiter has signed a 2-year deal with the Nashville Predators worth a reported $4M per season.
Niederreiter, coming off of a 5-year deal that paid him $5.25M per season, signed his deal with Nashville for less money and a much shorter term than many expected. At 29 and coming off of back to back 20+ goal seasons, this was likely his last chance to cash in on a long-term, big money deal. It's no surprise that Niederreiter found himself a new home, given that the Hurricanes have added Max Pacioretty, Ondrej Kase and Brent Burns this off-season and still need to hand out a hefty raise to RFA Martin Necas. There simply wasn't enough money to go around.
Adding Niederreiter gives the Predators another big winger in their top six that already includes Filip Forsberg, Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansen and Mikael Granlund. Nashville has suddenly become a dangerous team with the addition of Niederreiter up front to go along with the always strong defense and goaltending.
I'm sure that plenty of Leafs fans had been wondering whether or not Niederreiter was an option for the Leafs as a top six LW upgrade over Alexander Kerfoot, who has just one year remaining on his current contract, worth $3.5M. With Niederreiter having signed for 2 years at just $500K more than Kerfoot, I'm sure that Dubas had likely at least checked in on the 29-year-old. It wouldn't be the first time a player chose to play in the US and in a place with no State tax over a tough Canadian market like Toronto.
| POLL | ||
21 JUILLET | 229 ANSWERS Top six winger finally signs, surprisingly for less money than expected; did Kyle Dubas miss the boat? If you had a choice between Alex Kerfoot at $3.5M x1 or Nino Niederreiter at $4M x2, which would you pick? | ||
| Niederreiter - better player | 134 | 58.5 % |
| Kerfoot - more flexibility | 95 | 41.5 % |
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