[Inuyasha29]

From tsn.ca

Unable to find an offer he deemed suitable, it appears as though unrestricted free agent defenseman Denis Grebeshkov is heading back to Russia.

KHL club SKA St. Petersburg is reporting on their website that Grebeshkov has agreed to join the team and will sign a two-year deal by the end of the week.

While financial details were not released, the deal is believed to be in excess of the $3.15 million he earned last season while splitting time between the Nashville Predators and the Edmonton Oilers.

The 26-year old had seven goals and 14 assists in 51 games last season, missing significant time with a torn MCL and a lower-body injury. He also was part of Russia's disappointing Olympic side, picking up one assist in four games at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Originally a first round pick, 18th overall, by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, Grebeshkov had 17 goals and 67 assists in 227 career NHL games.

[zoomwaffles]

I heard Grebs offered a discount to Nashville and they still didn't want him. If that's the case, I'm very surprised. Seems like he has a lot to offer that club, even if they are stacked defensively. Hopefully he'll stay healthy in Russia and be back in 2 years.

[Inuyasha29]

Yeah, I had heard he told the Preds he'd take somewhere in the neighborhood of $2-2.5 million to stay, but they wanted to walk away from him because they wanted to use the savings to reportedly sign Hornqvist to a long term deal. Poile is infamous down here for being pretty cheap and trying to stay as close to the salary cap floor as possible. Nashville has about $13 million in cap space(at about $45 million right now) and no one down here honestly expects the Preds to go much higher even with the inevitable buying out of Del Biaggio. Nashvegas has a ton of young d-men ready to contribute like Blum, and that is the excuse Poile is using.