Predators Sign Kiefer Sherwood & Michael McCarron To One-Year Deals For 2023-24

Michael McCarron. Photo: Courtesy of the Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators have signed both Michael McCarron and Kiefer Sherwood to one-year, $775,000 contracts ahead of the 2023-24 season.

McCarron completed his third season with the Predators in 2022-23, posting four points (2 goals-2 assists), 20 blocked shots and 75 hits in 32 games. He won a career-high 59.4 percent of his faceoffs in 2022-23, the best mark on Nashville among those who took at least 100 draws. The 6-foot-6, 232-pound forward also averaged a career-high 1:12 of shorthanded ice time, helping the Predators finish with the joint fourth-best penalty kill in the NHL this season at 82.6 percent. At the AHL level, McCarron suited up in 16 games for Milwaukee, recording six points (2 goals-4 assists).

In 2021-22, the Grosse Pointe, Mich., native established career highs in nearly every category with Nashville, including games played (51), goals (7), assists (7), and points (14). During an AHL career that has featured 262 games with Milwaukee (57), Laval (115) and St. John’s (90), McCarron has picked up 141 points (58 goals-83 assists) and was named to the 2016 AHL All-Star Classic after posting a career-high 17 goals and 38 points with St. John’s.

Sherwood established NHL career highs in goals (7) and points (13) in 32 games with the Predators this season, his first with the organization. He also added six assists, matching his career high initially set as a rookie in 2018-19 with Anaheim, and 103 hits, placing him in the NHL’s Top 30 in hits per 60 minutes at 14.2 (among those with at least 30 games played). The 6-foot, 194-pound forward closed out the regular season with two goals on Friday vs. Colorado, scoring Nashville’s final goal of 2022-23 after notching the team’s first tally of the campaign on Oct. 7 vs. San Jose in Prague as part of a two-point night (1 goal-1 assist). Sherwood also appeared in 42 games for Milwaukee (AHL) this season, recording 22 goals and 38 points.

At the AHL level, he has produced at nearly a point-per-game pace, recording 172 points (92 goals-80 assists) in 186 games with San Diego, Colorado and Milwaukee since the 2017-18 campaign. In 2021-22, Sherwood was named to the AHL’s Second All-Star Team after leading Colorado and finishing fifth in the league in points with a career-high 75 (36 goals-39 assists); his 36 goals were also a career high and the third-most in the AHL.

Steven Boero