Weber Re-Signs in Nashville

The Nashville Predators management is working like a well-oiled machine when it comes to their free agents this summer. On Monday, they managed to lock up Shea Weber to a 3-year contract worth $13.5 million. It's certainly good news for the team, as they are managing their staff and finances in a very shrewd way.

Weber's deal will be an annual cap hit of $4.5 million, which brings him to the top of the salary heap in Nashville with Jason Arnott, Martin Erat and David Legwand. All four of these players will earn the same amount in 2008/'09, which seems to show a very solid team policy that doesn't necessarily give out superstar money.

Weber only played in 54 games for Nashville last season, but did end up with 20 points (6G, 14A) for the Preds. He is definitely a high-ranking prospect, because of his size and his offensive upside. His numbers should be considered for your next hockey pool team, as he could end up being a pretty good sleeper, thanks to his low point totals last season.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
J-P Dumont	Marek Zidlicky	Dan Ellis
Jason Arnott	Ryan Suter
Alexander Radulov	Dan Hamhuis
Martin Erat	Shea Weber
David Legwand	Greg de Vries
Vern Fiddler	Greg Zanon
Radek Bonk
Jordin Tootoo
Scott Nichol
Jared Smithson
Jed Ortmeyer

The Predators now have 18 players locked up for next season, which is near the top of the league, even before July 1st. Their approximate cap hit with those 18 is roughly $42 million. That should give them plenty of room to do some more key signings for the coming year. Weber was the biggest restricted free agent the team had to look after, now they can set their sights for the unrestricted market to see what they can scoop.