The Nashville Predators have addressed one of their holes on the forward depth chart, signing winger Zach Sanford to a one-year contract worth $850,000.
Sanford is coming off an unusual 2021-22 season. A member of the Blues’ 2019 Stanley Cup-winning team, Sanford was awarded a one-year, $2M deal with St. Louis last offseason. But before the season started, the Blues traded him to the Ottawa Senators. After just a few months with the Sens, Sanford was traded to the Winnipeg Jets at the deadline. He finished the season with 21 points (9 G, 12 A) in 80 games between both teams.
For the Predators, Sanford is a fairly decent addition to the team’s bottom six. He’s moved into a more defensive role over his past few seasons, which means the Preds can count on him for penalty killing minutes if needed. He’s 6’4”, so he offers the size David Poile covets in their bottom six. He’ll likely fill the “scrappy fourth-liner who can occasionally move up in the lineup if there’s an injury” role Nick Cousins had the past two seasons.
With Sanford’s signing and yesterday’s addition of goaltender Kevin Lankinen, the Predators now have roughly $7.15 million in cap space available. A part of that will need to go towards Yakov Trenin’s new contract, and the Predators still need to address to address holes in the middle six of their forward corps.