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The craziest three weeks of the offseason

June 17, 2019, 11:23 AM ET [13 Comments]
Paul McCann
Nashville Predators Blogger •Predators Radio Network • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Now the real offseason work begins and Predators GM David Poile has a lot of it to consider, to ponder, to figure out just what went wrong last season and how to address it for 2019/20. The most difficult piece of this ends up being figuring out how much of the team’s issues were caused by injury… and how much from deeper issues. The team has about $8 million in cap space with 2 RFA’s to sign. The good news/ bad news of this whole situation is that Poile has never been a reactionary GM and seems to understand the right move to make at the right time.

One obvious move has already been made, bringing in power play expert Dan Lambert to augment the existing coaching staff and address the Preds woeful power play from last season… but other remain.

The NHL Buyout period opens today and I do wonder if the GM will take advantage of it. The Predators head into the upcoming season with no dead money on their salary cap as Viktor Stalberg’s (remember him?) buyout is finally done. It’s an option… I just don’t know how much cap space you can get from that. I know that some folks in Pred Nation would like to see Kyle Turris bought out… that will get you $million in cap space, but would take $2 million per season away from the cap until the 28/29 season… I can’t see that happening. There are no real obvious choice here for this option.

The UFA exploration period begins on June 23. A quick look at Eklund’s Rumor Chart shows that the Predators are being rumored to be interested in Matt Duchene… now there’s a surprise! Other names on that list include NYI’s Anders Lee (an intriguing possibility,) RFA Andre Burakovsky (This one has been around since the trade deadline but won’t seem to go away) and a few other names that don’t seem to make any sense… but as usual, information sliding out of 501 Broadway is very thin… if any. This management team does a very good job in keeping things close to the vest.

We all know that signing Duchene means that cap space has to be cleared for this season. We also know that Roman Josi will need to be signed and will get a big payday and because eof that, tongues continue to wag about PK Subban and his potential to be moved. I don’t see that happening in this offseason. Subban has been the Preds most consistent playoff performer and will weaken the Predators greatest strength if you move him.

I do expect some under-the-radar moves that will strengthen this team, one of those happened late last week when the Predators acquired goaltender Connor Ingram from the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 2021 7th round pick. Ingram was Tampa’s 3rd round pick in the 2016 entry draft. An AHL All-Star last season for the Syracuse Crunch, the young netminder seemed to have been put in the organization’s doghouse, demoted to the ECHL, recalled and not used and sent down again.

You have to think that David Poile, before pulling the trigger on this trade, had a discussion with the head coach of the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears, former Predator Drake Berehowsky, who coached the young goaltender. The kind of information coming out about this young prospect is interesting… there is some serious justification going on from the Tampa organization, there is some alluding to behavior or character issues. I won’t go there yet… but it looks like the Preds goaltending got a bit deeper in talent. This should really help Milwaukee in the upcoming season.

So… it’s on… the real offseason moves are just starting and the whirlwind of activity is cranking up… strap in Pred Nation, this one is going to be interesting.

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Random Notes

- Draft – The Predators pick 24th in this weekend’s NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver. In this draft there is not a clear cut pecking order and Nashville will take the best available player… there are a few mock drafts calling for LW Nils Hoglander, great hands and some high end talent… I am not sure he will be available at 24… this is a deep draft at center, but I don’t think that any of the prime players will be available.

- PK and the Rock – Have you seen the online clips of PK Subban and Dwayne Johnson having fun? Kinda fun! It also makes me wonder if a hockey storyline is coming up in the next season of Ballers.

- Karlsson Extension – The numbers are staggering. 8 years at $11 million per year. Way overpaying for a player with Karlsson’s injury history.

- Head Scratcher – Olli Maatta to the Blackhawks for Dominik Kahun… Hmmm … I don’t get this one and I don’t think it made an injury prone team any better…

- Coach – Dallas Eakins is the new coach of the Anaheim Ducks. Lotsa luck!

- World Cup – Carli Lloyd is my hero… after all the ridiculous crap regarding the US Women’s Soccer team, her golf clap celebration was awesome! And a nice little middle finger to the pearl clutching set that whined about Team USA’s domination last week.

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