Signing an offer sheet is a tricky thing for a restricted free agent.
On one hand, it's not the sort of thing you do if you're not ready to leave your current team. On the other, you know that there's a good shot you'll find yourself with the same club, as Dustin Penner remains the last NHL player to change teams via an offer sheet, going from the Anaheim Ducks to the Edmonton Oilers in 2007.
Such is the case with Shea Weber, who finds himself back with the Nashville Predators after they matched the 14-year, $110 million offer sheet he signed last week with the Philadelphia Flyers. Weber's looking at a less-than-thrilling situation in Nashville, where running buddy Ryan Suter has run off to join the Minnesota Wild, while the Predators are left with a big-money contract for a star player - their captain, no less - who tried to skip town.
Suffice it to say that there are some fences that will need to be mended if this is going to work out.
To that end, Predators brass said all the right things on Wednesday, discussing their decision at a press conference at Bridgestone Arena.
"Shea is our leader," Predators chairman Tom Cigarran said. "We did what it took to keep him a Predator."
"I don't think he has any problem playing with the Predators for the next 14 years," added general manager David Poile.
By the same token, Weber made the right noises on a Wednesday conference call, saying that he is indeed comfortable finishing his career in Nashville, and that efforts to add a no-trade clause to the contract are the work of his agent.
It all sounds good now, but whether or not that no-trade clause is added will be the true indicator of how serious the Predators are about keeping Weber in Nashville until he hits 40.
Under the terms that Weber and his representatives negotiated with the Flyers, he's due $27 million per year in salary and signing bonus for each of the next four seasons, and another $20 million per year in the fifth and sixth years of the contract. It's a front-loaded contract, one that Nashville can't necessarily afford, which was what the Flyers had in mind when they signed Weber to an offer sheet.
The Predators couldn't afford to let Weber get away for four first-round draft picks, but that doesn't mean they can afford to pay Weber $148 million in real money (not salary cap dollars) over the next six years. As long as Weber doesn't get a no-trade clause, Nashville is under no obligation to find out, with the opportunity to trade Weber to the highest bidder at any point during the next few seasons.
It could well be that there are new economics at work for the Predators, and that they see Weber and Vezina Trophy finalist Pekka Rinne as the cornerstones of a team that will contend for the Stanley Cup for years to come. The Predators have done well building through the draft, and have an exciting new prospect on the blueline in Ryan Ellis. With the potential for at least seven more years of Rinne and Weber together in Nashville - if they so choose - the Predators could certainly continue to contend (particularly in a Central Division that has lost Nicklas Lidstrom, Rick Nash and Jiri Hudler so far this summer). In the end, the Nashville Predators and Shea Weber could wind up being very happy together.
Just don't be so sure unless Weber's agent gets that no-trade clause.
