Adam Vingan of The Athletic: Nashville Predators GM David Poile on pending unrestricted free agent forward Filip Forsberg and their timeline for a potential extension.
“I don’t put any timetable there. As we’ve seen in other situations, including on our own team, guys sign when it’s the right time, and teams do the same thing. It takes two to find a common denominator. There’s been some reporting that there hasn’t been much happening, but we’ve stayed in contact with his agents. It’s just a process. I think both sides would like to be together. We can’t wait until Filip comes back and see where it takes us. If it takes us to a new contract, that’s going to be a good place for both of us.”
Poile when asked if they are okay with talks going into the offseason and potentially losing Forsberg for nothing if they can’t work out a deal.
“I think we’re way far away from that, so I don’t want to say anything about that at this time. I have no idea where we’re going to be as a team — a playoff team, a non-playoff team. A lot of things are going to go into that, so we’re a long ways from that.”
Adam Vingan of The Athletic: Filip Forsberg has been a key member of the Nashville Predators, but he’s not an elite winger or classified in the great range either. He is still a good player but the Predators should not go long-term with a big contract for him.
Forsberg is likely looking for long-term security. Recent Predators signings have maxed out at four years – Mikael Granlund, Juuse Saros and Mattias Ekholm.
An agent on the Forsberg situation.
“You’re going to look at (Ryan) Johansen and obviously (Matt) Duchene and the numbers they put up and what they’ve signed (for). “(Forsberg’s) people are going to say he’s better, so you’re talking about the $8 million number. Personally, I don’t think he’s worth it. … I don’t know how you get out of this four-year term (limit), and then I don’t know how they get out of the Johansen-Duchene comparison, so I think those are the two major issues in front of (Predators general manager) David (Poile) and to some extent (assistant GM) Brian (Poile).”
Gabriel Landeskog’s eight-year contract at $7 million has been brought up as a comparable. Landeskog took less and got a full no-movement clause for four years, which is something the Predators don’t do.
If Forsberg does leave, the Predators don’t really have a replacement for him.