Nashville Predators GM David Poile went to the NHL Draft in Chicago in search of a trade partner. Poile has some big cowboy boots to fill since losing top line left winger James Neal last week to the Vegas Knights at the NHL expansion draft.
"That hurts. We're down a man," Poile said after the Vegas Expansion Draft.
The Predators lost their best scoring left winger James Neal to the Vegas Knights.
Poole acquired Neal in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins for forward Patric Hornqvist in June 2014. Neal had 41 points (23 goals, 18 assists) in 70 games this season, and nine points (six goals, three assists) in 22 Stanley Cup Playoff games to help Nashville reach the Final, where it lost to the Penguins in six games.
"This expansion process was painful for the Nashville Predators," Poile said. "We knew it. There was no way of getting out of it. The strength of our team is at defense, so we protected four defensemen. We were only able to protect four forwards, so it didn't line up correctly for us. I tried like a lot of people did, some of them a lot more successful than I was, to make a deal with [Golden Knights GM] George [McPhee]. The price was just too high in my estimation. Whatever assets I didn't give George to retain James or any other player, I still have those assets."
Now Poile must replace Neal's production in Peter Laviolette's lineup.
In 219 career regular season games in Smashville, Neal scored 77 goals and 59 assists for 136 points. He was +29 with 157 PIMs. In Nashville, Neal scored 65 (18 last season, 28 the season before) even strength goals, 12 PPGs, and 14 game winners. He landed 692 total shots on goal for an 11.1% shooting percentage. He averaged 18:20 TOI in his three seasons with the Predators, 17:42 TOI last season.
Poile told the Preds' website that he met with and spoke to several NHL GMs about trading for an elite level left winger.
"I think I touched base with just about everybody in two and a half days I've been here," Poile said. "There (may be framework) to generate some form of a trade, and we're only a few days away now from free agency and that's another avenue that we're going to look at. I think our team is still pretty good. We're down a man losing James Neal at the Expansion Draft, and if we can get a top-six forward, that would probably be my first choice."
Poile is in a dealing mood. He's a motivated buyer in that he is dealing from a position of need, not want. Poile isn't desperate. Yet. He will make a trade if and when the right one presents itself. If he can't make a trade to fill his LW need, he will shop the UFA market to find done.
On Sunday, Poile said he is not keen on trading away a member of his high profile, worth-its-weight-on-gold defense corps in order to recruit a scoring left winger.
Poile's take:
Give me a scoring left winger but don't dare ask for P.K. Subban, Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis or Mattias Ekholm.
"We've traded enough defensemen in my recent history," Poile said. "I think everybody would be pretty much on the same page that our defense drives our team and our core is as good as any in the League. We will not be touching our defense in the near future here."
In other words, Poile is looking for a cowboy with a white hat to ride into Nashville with a stud LW on the back of his horse and he doesn't want to pay a lot for said sniper.
Sorry, Dave. Be prepared to part with one of your reliable horses of you wish to make a trade for one of the two A+ veteran scoring left wingers who are actively being shopped by their respective NHL clubs.
Matt Duchene and Evander Kane were not traded at the NHL Draft because no NHL GMs wanted to part with multiple assets to secure each sniper.
Duchene, 26, was the 3rd overall pick at the 2009 NHL Draft. His eight year career in Colorado will soon be coming to an end. Avs GM Joe Sakic has committed to building around his youngster core of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, Tyson Jost, and Tyson Barrie. Duchene has said that he is open to being traded so that he can resume his NHL career elsewhere. He's played eight seasons in Denver and has given all that he can for the cause of building a perennial winner there. Sakic can trade Duchene for multiple pieces that he can invest in his re-build on the fly. On Friday night, Sakic addressed a massive organizational need when he drafted puck moving defenseman Cale Makar with the fourth overall pick at the 2017 NHL Draft. Sakic is looking for a top four defenseman in any Matt Duchene trade.
In 572 career games with the Avs, Duchene has scored 174 goals and 244 assists for 418 points. He has played in only 8 playoff games (6 assists).
Duchene plays a very similar game to that of James Neal. They both like to bump and grind while flushing the walls. Both like the puck on their sticks from outside the dots.
Duchene is owed $6 million for each of the next two seasons.
Evander Kane is not being actively shopped by the Sabres, however, their GM Jason Botterill is listening to all inquiries on the even strength scoring terror.
Kane is a different type of player than Duchene and Neal. Rather than play on the periphery, Kane drops his shoulders and bullies himself to the dirty areas below the hash marks and in the blue ice. Kane will hit, fight, score, make plays and block shots.
Kane, the 4th overall pick at the 2009 NHL Draft, has scored 48 goals in his two season in Buffalo with 40 of the goals coming at even strength. Kane scored 25 even strength markers last season. There is a high probability that Kane's goal totals can rise to between 35-38 goals per season if he was to be a permanent fixture on the #1 PP unit. Dan Bylsma rarely, if ever, played Kane on PP1. He was relegated to the second unit on the #1 PP unit in the NHL in 2016-17.
Kane scored each of his 27 goals in the final 57 games of he 2016-17 season. He scored 25 even strength goals in 70 games, that's .36 even strength goals per game.
Kane registered 260 shots on goal, a 10.8% shooting percentage, which was 11th in the final NHL shooting percentage standings.
At what price Duchene or Kane for the Predators? Remember the Seth Jones for Ryan Johansen trade? Poile will have to go there again if he is serious about trading for either Duchene or Kane.
Poile wants a top six scoring winger and he will have to give up a top four D to get one. Poile has been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt. If he wants to fill the void left by Neal's departure to Vegas, he will have to swallow hard and trade one of his top four D to get an established 25-30 goal scoring LW like Matt Duchene or Evander Kane.
Joe Sakic wants to build his blue line and trading Duchene to Nashville for a top four D would go a long way to accomplishing that goal.
Jason Botterill is still in the market for a plug and play top four D to stabilize and energize the Buffalo blue line. Phil Housley knows Nashville's D corps like they are his own kids.
Of Poile is dead set against trading a T4D for a T6LW, then he can always cross his fingers and hope that kids Kevin Fiala and Pontus Aberg will blow up and assume a larger scoring and leadership role for the Preds.
Poile can also settle for an aging LW who will command fat dollars and long term on the UFA market.
The NHL UFA interview period opened on Sunday and Poile said he will reach out to "five or six" agents of prospective unrestricted free agents to test for interest for when the free agent frenzy period will begin on July 1.
"I clearly think this year as we've built up our franchise and the success we had off the ice and the visual experience everybody had that saw our games and what Nashville is like, it probably does make Nashville a very attractive team to come to," Poile said. "I'll let you know soon if that's the case."
Poile will have some work to do this week. There are a few noteworthy pending UFA LW who will be on the market July 1. Patrick Marleau scored 27 goals last season, however, will be 38 years old soon. Marleau will demand a fat pay check and a long term. Ditto 35 year old Patrick Sharp, who scored 10 goals and earned $5M; 37 year old Chris Kunitz scored 9 goals and earned $3.55M. Thomas Vanek, 33, earned $2.6 million last season and scored 17 goals.
Join the Discussion:
»