The Nashville Predators and goaltender Juuse Saros have agreed to an eight-year extension worth $7.74 million per year, according to The Athletic's Chris Johnston and Hunter Patterson.

Saros plans to sign the deal when he becomes extension-eligible on July 1, Johnston and Patterson reported.

The 29-year-old is currently signed through 2024-25. His new deal is set to keep him in Nashville through the 2033-34 campaign.

Saros has played nine seasons with the Predators, including three as their undisputed starter, since Nashville drafted him in 2013. He has led the NHL in starts, saves and shots against for the past two seasons.

Saros earned a 35-24-5 record through 64 starts for the Predators last season as he faced an NHL-high 1,845 shots against. He stopped 1,672 shots to mark a .906 save percentage and 2.86 goals-against average.

Those numbers, which marked a down year for a goaltender with a save percentage of .918 or above in each of the three seasons prior, still allowed Saros to backstop the Predators into the playoffs.

Nashville has every reason to hope Saros will bounce back in 2024-25. Since Pekka Rinne's retirement in 2021, he has been a consistently strong performer while taking on one of the heaviest goaltending workloads in the NHL.

No goaltender has made more than Saros' 194 regular-season starts over that span, over which the Predators netminder has averaged a .915 save percentage and 2.73 goals-against average.

Saros has accordingly finished top-six in Vezina Trophy voting in each of the past four seasons.

The goaltender's consistency and ability to stay healthy has been a central part of the reason the Predators have qualified for the playoffs in two of the last three seasons.

Although the term of the extension is somewhat a risk for the Predators, the Florida Panthers' Stanley Cup win in front of 35-year-old stalwart Sergei Bobrovsky proved the value of long-term deals for proven goaltenders.

Nashville now has its star trio of Saros, Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi signed through at least the 2027-28 season.

Having not made it past the first round since 2018, and last vying for a title during their 2017 run to the Stanley Cup Final, the Predators will now hope to retool into a contender around this core.