predators sign new forward

Predators have signed winger Martin Gelinas to a 1-year $1.25 million deal. (He's coming off a 2-year $1.9mil deal with Florida).

Gelinas is coming to us from the Florida Panthers.
Last year he had 14 goals, 30 assists, (for 44 points) was +7 and had only 36 penalty minutes in all 82 games for the Panthers (averaged 13+ minutes of ice time last year). Looks like a good 2nd-3rd line winger and a penalty killer. Possibly a replacement for Scott Hartnell of sorts. Not a huge player (5-11, 202), but we already picked up size elsewhere this off-season.

He's also an experienced veteran. At 37, he's the oldest player on the Predators roster and has been playing professional hockey for longer than Radulov has been on the planet. He played for the Oilers, Nordiques, Canucks, Hurricanes, Flames, and Panthers. his peak year was in 96-97 when he finished with 68 points (35 goals, 33 assists). But he has been a consistent performer through his career, and it looks like recently he's turned himself into a reliable two-way player, finishing with an average of 42 points and +8 over the last 5 years.

This signing uses up most of the salary-floor space we had left so i think Eklund's newly posted update (this morning) of Foppa-to-Nashville possibilities are looking unlikely. Assuming that thePredators stay on the salary-floor, which i think is likely, at least until we get in to the season and see how the team and ticket sales are going...or if the sale of the team goes through and the new ownership (whoever it is) has money to spend.

The Forechecker and Paul McCann have posted their thoughts as well. Forechecker has some interesting looks at our possible line-ups for next year too.

Hockey trivia - the Predators site is listing Gelinas as one of the players traded to Edmonton from LA as a prospect for Wayne Gretzky back in 1988.