The Nashville Predators are buying out the contract of center Matt Duchene. The 32-year-old had three years remaining on his current deal worth an average annual value of $8 million. The parameters of this buyout for Nashville are not great. Duchene will be paid over the next six seasons. The cap hit jumps to around $5.5 million in 2024-25 and $6.5 million in 2025-26. After that, the final three years of the buyout will only be around $1.5 million. The Preds should be able to withstand that in the short-term but it’s less than ideal.
Entering free agency on July 1, the Predators have eight forwards under contract for the 2023-24 season. Two of those are entry-level deals and four are unrestricted free agents being paid under $1 million. Cody Glass, Rasmus Asplund and Zach Sanford are all set to be free agents and need new deals. Defensemen Cal Foote and Alexandre Carrier are also RFAs.
Nashville is clearly moving into a deep rebuild. The Preds had two first-round picks in the 2023 NHL Draft at Bridgestone Arena this week. Forward Matthew Wood and defenseman Tanner Molendyk were selected and could be building blocks as part of the rebuild. The draft was the last for now retired GM David Poile. Barry Trotz is taking over as general manager.
Duchene will likely have a lot of interest when free agency begins on July 1. This free agent class is super thin. It wasn’t too long ago Duchene scored 86 points back in 2021-22. He still has plenty of top-6 upside and could go the discount route to try and chase a championship. Duchene could command a 3-4 year contract worth around $5-6 million.
