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:
— Adam Vingan (@AdamVingan) July 1, 2019
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
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.
