It happened. It finally happened. After years of rumors and years of talk about how much Matt Duchene wants to be in Nashville, he is now a Nashville Predator. Fans have had to deal with rumors and speculation since before the Kyle Turris trade in November 2017. Now that he’s official part of the organization, what now? Only time will tell. I’ll let the fellas that dive into analytics get into detail on that side, but here are some things to know about the new center for the Nashville Predators.

Here’s the contract breakdown:

Duchene contract with Preds includes $28 million in signing bonus money. Year by year total: $10 mil, $8 mil, $10mil, $8mil, $9 mil, $6 mil, $5 mil.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 1, 2019

Duchene has a 7-team No-trade clause the last three seasons of the contract https://t.co/qFc11xkRHM

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) July 1, 2019

Via @PierreVLeBrun, the salary breakdown on Duchene’s deal:

Y1: $2 mil base, $8 million SB
Y2: $3 mil base, $5 million SB
Y3: $5 mil base, $5 million SB
Y4: $4 mil base, $4 million SB
Y5: $7 mil base, $2 million SB
Y6: $4 mil base, $2 million SB
Y7: $3 mil base, $2 million SB

— Adam Vingan (@AdamVingan) July 1, 2019

Matt Duchene signed a seven year deal for an average annual value (AAV) of $8 million. That’s $56 million for the length of the contract. He’s currently 28 years old. Following two years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Brampton Ballation, including a trip to the World Juniors, Duchene entered the league in the year he was draft third overall by the Colorado Avalanche, 2009.

In his rookie season, Duchene played in 81 games, totaling 24 goals and 31 assists. He’s been on multiple World Championship teams where he’s won gold. He also won gold with Canada in the Olympics. During the 2017-18 season, he had a league-best face-off winning percentage with 62.6%.

Over the past two season, Duchene spent time with three teams, the Colorado Avalanche, Ottawa Senators and most recently, the Columbus Blue Jackets. In this year’s playoffs with the Blue Jackets, Duchene notched five goals and five assists in 10 games for Columbus.

There’s a brief overview of who the Preds just signed, one of their biggest splashes in free agency in team history. What do think? Let us know in the comments below.

Justin Bradford

Justin is the author of "The Making of Smashville." An award-winning reporter, in 2013, he received the Silver Medal in the Best Sports Reporter Category for The Tennessean's Toast of Music City reader's poll. In 2014 & 2015, Justin was voted as the Best Sports Reporter in Nashville. In 2014, PenaltyBoxRadio.com received the silver medal as Best Blog in Nashville. In 2015, the website received the award for Best Sports Blog in Music City. In 2016, the site was awarded 2nd place as Best Blog in Nashville. He has been a featured guest on "NHL Tonight" on NHL Network, "Inside Sports Sunday on WSMV-TV, "All Things Considered" on NPR, "Road to the Cup" on WKRN-TV, "Sportsline" on NewsC hannel 5+, "Predators Playoffs Today" on ESPN 102.5 The Game, TSN 1290 Winnipeg, Sportsnet 590 The Fan - Toronto, TSN 1260 Edmonton, WGR Sports Radio 550 - Buffalo, and featured in The Ringer, Saturday Down South and The Tennessean. Credentialed by the Nashville Predators, the NHL (Stanley Cup Final, Draft, All Star Game), WCHA and CHL.