Nashville Predators re-sign Sergei Kostitsyn to 2-year, $6 million contract -NHL Update
Nashville Predators luckily avoided arbitration and kept Sergei Kostitsyn on board with a two-year, $6 million contract on Monday, July 23, 2012, which will make the 25-year-old an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2013-2014 National Hockey League
(NHL) regular season.
Predators have been one of the teams with the worst luck these past few offseason years as they have always been dealing with players salary related issues. Last year, captain Shea Weber went into arbitration and came out with the title of the league’s best
defenseman, while now, they might be losing him to the Philadelphia Flyers.
There is no clear answer as to why Nashville Predators are acting in such a staunch manner when it comes to re-signing players but clearly, it has hurt them in a major way, with number-two defender, Ryan Suter, already out the question and part of Minnesota
Wild.
Kostitsyn was drafted as the 200th overall back in round-seven on the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by Montreal Canadiens. He spent three straight seasons with Montreal Canadiens before making the shift to Nashville and really shining out as an offensive
star.
In his first season with Nashville, 2010-2011, Kostitsyn put up 50 points (23 goals, 27 assists) in 77 games played for a plus-minus rating of 10 and 43 points (17 goals, 26 assists) in 75 games last season.
One thing that has always been considered a bad habit of Sergei Kostitsyn is the hesitation from his side to take quality shots at the net when given a clean chance. Instead, the forward slides it off to a teammate, which usually loses the attempt and denies
the opportunity altogether.
Predators and Nashville fans are definitely hoping for Kostitsyn to come out of that barrier and start taking more risks instead of focusing on getting the best of chances.
In a total of 307 games played, the native of Novopolotsk, Belarus, has 64 goals and 97 assists for 161 points below his belt and 177 minutes in penalty time.
His previous contract was a one-year, $2.5 million deal, giving him a boost of $500,000 annually with the new one.
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