The Filip Forsberg Deal Sets the Precedence For A Nathan MacKinnon Contract

Filip Forsberg recently signed a 6 year contract with the Nashville Predators, worth 6 million dollars a year. A great price for the Preds for now, and as Forsberg continues to improve, and as the cap goes up every year, this will look like a steal.

Hey, isn’t Nathan MacKinnon an RFA looking for a new contract for this upcoming year? Our sources say yes; yes he is. So what does the Forsberg contract mean for the Avs and their negotiations with MacKinnon? It means a precedence has been set. And if the hockey contract world was perfect, the Avs could give MacKinnon the exact same contract.

The Avs can go in to negotiations citing the following:

Forsberg has been the better offensive player over the past few years. Forsberg has 60 goals in his 182 career games. MacKinnon has 59 goals in 218 career games; 36 more games than Forsberg.

Forsberg is the most important, best offensive player on the Predators, and arguably the most important player on the team. Forsberg is their number one guy. Nathan MacKinnon is very important on the Avalanche but is he the best offensive player? The player most relied upon on the team? No. The Avs have other franchise cornerstones in Duchene and Landeskog. Not to mention up and coming first round draft picks Joey Hishon, Conner Bleackley, and Duncan Seimens.

Bottom line: Forsberg is more offensively dynamic, means more to his team, and is more important to his team. Those last two actually do mean different things.

MacKinnon is good. He will get better. But for now, judging by the Forsberg deal, MacKinnon shouldn’t sign for any more than $6M. $5M for about 3 or 4 years would be a great deal. 6 wouldn’t be the worst, and it wouldn’t violate the team’s self implemented player cap.

So thank you Nashville for setting the standard at an extremely reasonable price.