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Predators continue to work through RFA offer sheet mess, sign four players

Nashville Predators v Vancouver Canucks - Game Five

VANCOUVER, CANADA - MAY 7: Alexandre Burrows #14 of the Vancouver Canucks chases Nick Spaling #13 of the Nashville Predators for the puck during the second period in Game Five of the Western Conference Semifinals during the 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on May 07, 2011 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)

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General Manager David Poile and the Nashville Predators took a huge step towards solving their restricted free agent problems this offseason by coming to terms with Matt Halischuk, Nick Spaling, Chris Mueller, and Cal O’Reilly on Thursday afternoon. The four players are all in the middle of the qualifying offers dispute that has been scheduled to be heard by an arbitrator on Friday, July 8th and Wednesday July 13th. Now all that’s left of the potentially disastrous situation for Poile is one player: Sergei Kostitsyn.

Really, was there any doubt that Kostitsyn would continue to be in the middle of this mess?

For fans in Nashville, some of the best news is they didn’t have to extremely overpay any of the players in question. From the Nashville Predators official release:

Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced today that the club has signed forwards Matt Halischuk and Nick Spaling to two-year contracts, and forwards Chris Mueller and Cal O’Reilly to one-year deals. Halischuk’s contract is worth $1.425 million, paying him $600,000 in 2011-12 and $825,000 in 2012-13 while Spaling’s contract is worth $2.1 million, paying him $1 million in 2011-12 and $1.1 million in 2012-13. O’Reilly’s contract will see him earn $1.05 million in 2011-12 and Mueller’s two-way contract will see him paid $550,000 at the NHL level and $65,000 at the AHL level.

Yes, each player received a little more than they would have if they were in a normal restricted free agency situation. The worst fears were that they’d have to grossly overpay like Dale Tallon and the Blackhawks were forced to do with their restricted free agents in 2009 when they had problems faxing the offers in a timely manner. They ended up overpaying their six restricted free agents to the extent that none of the players are still with the organization. For that matter, the GM lost his job as well.

David Poile has done his best to rectify a tough situation, but the heavy lifting is still ahead of him. It’s no secret that the Predators are a playoff contender that gets the job done with great defense and stellar netminding. Unfortunately, their weakness is both skill and depth amongst the forward unit. By signing Halischuk, Spaling, and O’Reilly the Predators have locked up three forwards NHL forwards for next season to address the depth. But in the skill of Kostitsyn, the Predators still need to lock up their best offensive player from a season ago.

…he’s taken some of the anxiety out of the air, but Sergei Kostitsyn is perhaps the most critical of the bunch, a winger fit in reasonably well in a prominent role. Even if his goal-scoring in 2010-11 was fluky (which it was), he could be a 40-50 point guy if he plays on a major line all season, and the Predators are painfully short of such talent.

Obviously it’s important for a team to re-sign their best offensive producer. But for a team like the Predators that is already struggling to find high level scorers, it’s critical to their success. Kostitsyn led the Predators with 23 goals and 50 points a season ago (tied with Martin Erat). The numbers may not jump off the score sheet to the average fan—but those are the best they have in Nashville. Take him out of the line-up and a weak offensive team becomes that much weaker. The team would be able to take the money from his contract pursue another free agent, but who would they sign at this point in the offseason? It’s no secret that there aren’t many decent free agents left on the open market.

It would be easiest for the Predators to reach an agreement before the arbitrator hears the NHLPA’s grievance over the next few days. If they can’t reach an agreement and Kostitsyn wins his case, he’d become an unrestricted free agent available to all 30 teams.

We’ll keep you posted as the story continues to develop.