The Philadelphia Flyers pushed all their Shea Weber chips into the middle of the NHL free agency pot. Unfortunately for Broard Street hockey fans, the Nashville Predators called their team's bluff Tuesday, as the Preds decided to match Philly's 14-year, $110 million contract to the defenseman.
The Predators decision comes more than 24 hours before Wednesday's deadline, which would have been the deciding factor on whether Weber was going to be a Flyer or not. Instead, Nashville decided to bring back Weber and make the biggest investment in franchise history.
"The decision to enter into the largest contract in franchise history was made by all parts of the organization, including ownership, hockey operations and business operations," reads Nashville's official website.
According to Nashville, there were three reasons why it matched the offer: 1) They wanted Weber to be the leader of the franchise for the long-term future; 2) the investment in Weber was a good one; 3) not signing Weber would send a bad message to the franchise's fans and players.
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