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2nd round pick from 1999 ready to sign with Preds…

Remember Brian Finley?

(No no! Stay with me here!)

Remember Brian Finley? Well, Jonas Andersson was supposed to be the “2” in the “1-2 punch” the Nashville Predators were drafting with Finley back in 1999. Instead what they got was two guys who put in a lot of time in the minors and minimal (and unproductive) time in the majors.

Between being selected in the second round of the 1999 Draft and now, Andersson has played on the now defunct North Bay Centennials of the OHL, both the IHL and AHL version of the Milwaukee Admirals, the Finnish Elite League, the Swedish Elite League and, most recently, Minsk Dynamo of the KHL.

Oh yeah, and he also played five games for Nashville back in 2001 but failed to register a single point.

Aside from his two seasons with Kärpät of the Finnish Elite League, he’s never stayed with one team longer than one season since returning to Europe to play professional hockey.

Well, according to Puck Daddy writer Dmitry Chesnokov, Andersson is close to signing with Nashville once again. 12 years after originally being drafted by the Preds.

But, don’t worry. It’s not all bad news.

After leaving North American hockey after four disappointing seasons, the left winger was a point-per-game scorer with Kärpät in 2008-09 when he posted 57 points in 55 games. His 24 goals was a club best and he was second on the team in scoring. While that was the best season of his career by far, after moving onto the KHL last year, he tallied 20 points in 30 games on a really weak Dynamo team who finished 19 points out of the playoffs. So, an argument could be made, with a better team, he could’ve posted similar numbers to his final season with Kärpät.

It’s no secret that the Preds have needed a scoring winger for a long time. Since Alexander Radulov left, actually. You know that his contract would be an affordable one and, with him being a left wing, he wouldn’t cut into the depth chart full of centers. So, if they can get some consistent production out of Andersson, it may have taken over a decade to do so, but Nashville will have made a great investment.

Just don’t count on him sticking around too long.

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