from Ken Campbell of The Hockey News,

So if it turns out the Predators do end up leaving James Neal exposed in the expansion draft, it won’t be because they don’t like him as a player. It will be more because he’s scheduled to make $5 million next season, while a player such as Calle Jarnkrok would be more valuable to them because he has four years left on his deal at just $2 million per season.

Prior to the Stanley Cup final, Predators GM David Poile was talking about how teams often get squeezed by the salary cap. “You can see it around the league,” Poile said, “and I’m not saying we’re not going to be there at some point. We’re going to be there very quickly. I mean, we re-sign (Ryan) Johansen and (Viktor) Arvidsson and we’re right there. We’re planning for it. Each year there are probably 10 or 12 teams that have cap issues that restrict them from doing certain things.”

And as Poile said, that day of reckoning is coming for the Predators. And soon. As it stands right now, the Predators have approximately $16.5 million in cap space remaining for next season. But that does not include contracts for restricted free agents Johansen, Arvidsson, Austin Watson, Pontus Aberg and Frederick Gaudreau. The Predators would also like to re-sign captain Mike Fisher, who’s an unrestricted free agent. So that money is going to go really quickly.

Let’s start with the two big fish, Johansen and Arvidsson. With Johansen, things are fairly straightforward. In his last contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets, which came after long, ugly and protracted fight with the team, Johansen’s agent negotiated a deal that would see him make only $3 million in each of the first two years of the deal, a salary which went up to $6 million this season.

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