Predators Hook Up Jarnkrok

There was one other pool worthy signing on Wednesday, which didn't make the publishing cut-off yesterday, as the Nashville Predators locked up forward Calle Jarnkrok to a 6-year deal, worth $12 million.  The $2 million cap hit certainly has some potential to be a bargain, as his scoring totals continue to trend upward.

The 24-year old Swede was acquired by the Predators in the 2014 season and has since worked his way into a full-time spot with the team, the 2016 season being his second full season with the club.  In 81 games, he scored 16 goals and 30 points, finishing 191st among all forwards in scoring and quietly going about his business.

If last season was any indication, he will get lots of opportunity for offense, as he was lining up with both Ryan Johansen and James Neal for a good portion of the season, after Johansen was brought in from Columbus.  With all three signed up for the coming season, I would imagine that those three would be looked towards as a unit to start the year and that familiarity could breed some more offense.  My early projection for Jarnkrok is in the 50-point range.

The Predators also added unrestricted free agent defenseman Matt Carle on Wednesday, adding a bit more size and a defensive anchor, likely to offset the offensive push that a P.K. Subban or Ryan Ellis could provide when provoked.  With both signings under their roof, the Predators are still sitting with about $5.2 million in cap space, so they are looking very solid for the coming season.

Forwards	Cap	Defense	Cap	Goalies	Cap
Filip Forsberg	6.000	P.K. Subban	9.000	Pekka Rinne	7.000
James Neal	5.000	Roman Josi	4.000
Craig Smith	4.250	Mattias Ekholm	3.750
Ryan Johansen	4.000	Ryan Ellis	2.500
Mike Ribeiro	3.500
Calle Jarnkrok	2.000
Mike Fisher	4.400	Matthew Carle	0.700
Colin Wilson	3.938	Anthony Bitetto	0.613
Viktor Arvidsson	0.632
Miikka Salomaki	0.613
Austin Watson	0.575
Kevin Fiala	0.863	Yannick Weber	0.575	Marek Mazanec	0.575
Colton Sissons	0.625
Harry Zolnierczyk	0.575
Vladislav Kamenev	0.833	Jack Dougherty	0.687	Juuse Saros	0.693
Pontus Aberg	0.781	Alexandre Carrier	0.668	Jonas Gunnarsson	0.635
Yakov Trenin	0.762	Trevor Murphy	0.640
Justin Kirkland	0.718	Petter Granberg	0.613
Anthony Richard	0.668	Mikko Vainonen	0.610
Felix Girard	0.632	Jaynen Rissling	0.607
Max Gortz	0.617	Jonathan-Ismael Diaby	0.588
Cody Bass	0.613	Matt Irwin	0.575
Trevor Smith	0.613
Adam Payerl	0.575
Michael Liambas	0.575

Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, assumed roster fill-ins,  injured/retired cap hits, in the system