Predators give surprising Goc one-year extension

Goc

The Nashville Predators hedged their bet when they signed Marcel Goc last summer.

Wednesday, they made it clear that they did not want to gamble on letting the 26-year-old center get back on the open market. With a little less than half the current season remaining, Goc and the Predators agreed to a one-year contract for the next one.

The deal guarantees him an NHL salary of $775,000 for 2010-11. That is in direct contrast to his current one-year, two-way deal, which pays him $550,000 as long as he is with the Predators but also includes a provision for an American Hockey League salary of $105,000.

He agreed to that deal after having spent most of the offseason as a free agent. He was signed Aug. 21, less than a month before the start of training camp.

In 49 games for Nashville this season, Goc already has set a career-high with 10 goals. He also has nine assists, which leaves him three shy of his career-high for points (22), which he set as a rookie with San Jose in 2005-06.

He leads the Predators in faceoff percentage (51.9) and averages 14:08 of ice time per contest, which is on pace for the highest of his career and includes better than a minute and a half of penalty killing.

He missed Tuesday’s 3-2 loss at Columbus — the Predators’ fourth straight defeat — with an upper body injury.

Last month he was chosen to play for Germany in next month’s 2010 Winter Olympics at Vancouver.