Adam Vingan

avingan@tennessean.com

A significant amount of money is spent on the opening day of NHL free agency, which starts Friday. Teams that dive right in and sign players to exorbitant contracts often experience buyer's remorse.

That being said, the Predators, who have made two significant transactions this week by re-signing forward Filip Forsberg to a six-year contract and trading captain Shea Weber to the Canadiens for defenseman P.K. Subban, may be content to bargain hunt.

"I’m not sure July 1 or 2 is the right day to participate," Predators general David Poile said Tuesday. "But I do think there could be some players that we’ve rated pretty good that might fall a little bit farther down the line."

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After buying out the final year of forward Eric Nystrom's contract and placing defenseman Barret Jackman on waivers Thursday to do the same, Nashville has about $9.3 million in salary cap space to tinker with its roster, according to generalfanager.com.

Defensively, cutting ties with Jackman leaves the Predators in need in that area, currently having five defensemen under contract that saw regular NHL playing time last season — Subban, Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm, Ryan Ellis and Anthony Bitetto, all of whom are 27 or younger. Re-signing restricted free agent Petter Granberg is a priority, but the Predators could be in the market for more.

"I think we have a terrific defense, but if we could get a little bit more depth, I would be happy to try to do that," Poile said.

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At forward, the Predators expressed interest in veterans Andrew Ladd, Loui Eriksson and Eric Staal during the six-day period granted by the NHL to interview pending free agents. All three would theoretically strengthen the team's lineup but are likely to command higher salaries as some of the most coveted players available.

Poile is also wary of signing players who may block some of Nashville's top prospects from potential playing time.

"I want to be careful because we do have back pressure with players like (forward Vladislav) Kamenev and (forward Kevin) Fiala, (forward Pontus) Aberg, that maybe are getting close and we might not want to sign away their position to another player," said Poile, who is also hoping to re-sign restricted free agent forward Calle Jarnkrok to a long-term extension.

A backup goaltender will also be needed with Carter Hutton expected to leave as a free agent, but that role should be filled in-house with Marek Mazanec, the frontrunner for the position.

Poile expects to take a patient approach to the free-agent proceedings.

"It’s got to come to us," he said. "We’re organized, we have an order, we know what we want if it appears there. So if we sign somebody, it’ll be for a reason. If we don’t, it’ll be for a reason.”

Reach Adam Vingan on Twitter @AdamVingan.

NHL FREE AGENCY

When: 11 a.m. Friday

Predators place Barret Jackman on waivers for buyout purposes