paul nicholson

predators rumor update

In Hockey, Sports on July 25, 2007 at 11:31 am

Eklund just posted an updated version of his list of available free agents (ranked in order) and their possible destinations. As stated previously, the only player listed a few weeks ago was Jeremy Roenick.

Here’s our presence on the list now (with other possible destinations):

1. Peter Forsberg (Nashville, Vancouver, Detroit, Philadelphia)
21. Jan Bulis (Columbus, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Wash)
31. Jeremy Roenick (Toronto, Nashville, Ottawa)
32. Mike Johnson (Nashville,Phoenix, NYI, NJ)

It is very interesting of course to see Peter Forsberg added to the list. We have a good bit of room left to spend to get to the salary-cap floor, and supposedly Foppa really liked it here. Whether or not he’d give us another shot is another issue. He would be a huge boost to the team, both for fan draw and marketing, and would still be able to contribute on-ice as well (though i would pencil him in for only 50-games tops with his ongoing foot problems).

Jeremy Roenick i’ve already talked about.

Jan Bulis and Mike Johnson…interesting, but nothing special. These guys are more 3rd/4th line fodder (unless they have a breakout year) but do provide more good size (6’0″ and 6’2″).

I’m just happy to see us back on the shoppers list. Best of all, i still trust David Poile to put together the best possible team given his financial pressure.

It is a testament to his skills and deal structuring that we are still not to the cap floor yet and we are putting a team on the ice with Steve Sullivan, Jason Arnott, JP Dumont, Alexander Radulov, David Legwand, and Martin Erat up front and Zidlicky, Weber, Suter, Zanon, and Hamuis on defense – and a goalie that finished # 2 in the league in save percentage and 12th in shutouts, 10th in goals against.

All that for less than the salary floor.
He gets my (totally unbiased) vote for GM of the year if we get close to the playoffs.

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  • Rob Robinson

    Thanks for the heads up, Paul. Did you read Legwand’s quote about Forsberg in The Tennessean recently? He basically just said that it’s been a rumor that Forsberg may want to come back. It would sure be a boost.

    I’m with your assessments for the most part, but I don’t want to see Roenick here. In my opinion, he’s much more motormouth than force on the ice these days, though he’s certainly a legend in the right circles.

  • Christy

    I hope Forsberg comes back. If he does, though, I may have to go buy some Crocs….

  • Paul Nicholson

    I heard about the quotes. Foppa saying “See you guys in the fall” when he left, etc. But honestly i have to assume that he was assuming the Predators would be fielding as competitive a team as they did last year. No question he liked it in Nashville, but he’s not going to come back unless he thinks a team has a shot at a cup. Nashville barely fits in the category.

    Let me say again about my Roenick thoughts: I don’t think Roenick would be a positive force on the ice, and barely, possibly, off ice. he would make the Predators interesting and good reporter fodder. You don’t have to look at ESPN.com for very long before you realize they don’t write long articles and big headlines for any good news (outside of championships). The rest is all about people getting fired, arrested, trash-talking, or all of the above. The Predators (and the NHL) need press coverage. He addresses that issue and that issue only. Not worth more than $450k, which of course he won’t take.

    Maybe we can talk Darcy Hordichuck into a little more trash-talking this year?

  • jc

    IMO:
    Forsberg=not a chance he will come back, Preds are lucky to get the last seat in the playoffs this year with that team.

    Roenick=washed up, done, loudmouth, that still thinks he can play like he did 10 years ago, he should have left a very very long time ago, kinda feel the same way about Tkachuk.

    Dont enough about the other players to comment.

    Its sad about the whole sale, possible move issue. You lost some key members of your team. I think its going to show this year, I really do.