NHL Rumors: The Nashville Predators and Luke Evangelista Apart on a Two-Year Deal

Luke Evangelista is back in the Toronto area, awaiting a contract from the Nashville Predators

The Chris Johnston Show: Chris Johnston on Nashville Predators RFA forward Luke Evangista, who remains unsigned and has left Nashville. The sides are not too far apart on a two-year deal.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

“Luke Evangelista over the weekend, was in Nashville, flew back to the Toronto area, where he’s from. You know, that’s, that’s kind of a step, right? It’s a sign that I was in position ready to do a deal to be at the first day of work when training camp started. And it tells us that things aren’t going too well in the negotiations, when a player that leaves the market to go elsewhere while things go on.

And so, you know, I continue to think the Evangelista one is the most unusual of all of these, only because the relative amount of money between the two positions is pretty small. You know, they’re talking about a two-year contract for Luke Evangelista. You know, and the Predators are offering somewhere in the two-year range, at $2 million. You know, he’s countering at like three and a quarter.

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You know, I, well, I gather that’s real money, and most of us would love to be in that kind of negotiation. It’s not a case where there, yeah, arguing six and seven and eight-year deals, where the total value, you know, there could be $10 million between the sides, over the, over those long-term deals. And it’s hard to solve that problem. I mean, it generally is pretty easy to solve these problems.

And then you have this player, you know, flying back now into Ontario. I mean, it’s a little bit of a weird one. You know, Nashville, the team that doesn’t have any cap issues. You know, they’ve had trouble developing their own players there. And so obviously, he could count as a positive side of that. It’s just, you know, that one’s more surprising.

Alex Daugherty: (The Edmonton Oilers signed Vasily Podkolzin to a three-year extension with a $2.95 million cap hit) This deal should help Evangelista’s case, and get him back to Nashville.

Alex Daugherty: Though he wasn’t eligible for salary arbitration, if he was, he’s likely get around $3 million.

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It sounds like the team is low (maybe around $2 million) and Evangelista’s agent is high (maybe around $4, $4.5 million). Seems like a two-year deal at $3 million per, time to get it done.

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