Per agent Allan Walsh, the Nashville Predators have re-upped with RFA goalie Marek Mazanec on a one-year deal.
Per the Preds, it’s a two-way contract worth $575,000 at the NHL level and $100,000 at the AHL level. So essentially the same deal he played the ’15-16 campaign on.
Mazanec, 24, has appeared in 27 career games for the Preds, though none this past season, having spent the entire campaign in AHL Milwaukee (where he posted a 2.45 GAA and .912 save percentage in 39 games).
Mazanec made his big-league debut during the 2013-14 season in the wake of Pekka Rinne’s hip injury, getting significant minutes in tandem with Carter Hutton. The Czech netminder earned NHL Rookie of the Month honors for November that year and finished with a .902 save percentage and 2.80 GAA, but was then jettisoned back to Milwaukee, with Rinne and Hutton filling the Preds’ No. 1 and 2 spots.
Now, one has to wonder if Hutton’s time is up.
He’s set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, and the Preds boast some pretty good goaltending depth. There’s Mazanec, Jonas Gunnarsson -- a Swedish League standout GM David Poile signed two weeks ago -- and another good young prospect in Juuse Saros, who’s coming off a solid campaign in AHL Milwaukee.
David Poile: "Carter (Hutton) sees signing with the Predators as a little bit of a dead end to his career."
— Adam Vingan (@AdamVingan) June 13, 2016