Preds fans are complaining about their 3rd pairing D men when other teams just want a decent top 4. It is true of all teams that if injuries happen to top guys you are going to be in trouble. Poile is waiting to see what happens with Ellis before worrying about that bottom pair. If it looks like an extension isn't happening and you need to trade him then you need to get another top 4 D man which are harder to find then a 3rd pairing guy.
I don't buy this perspective. Last year should have been a learning experience. Preds wanted a Cup. Ellis was hurt to start the season. They got another D who helped in the meantime in the regular season - but had to give up a 3rd rounder to do it. Then they were all healthy in the playoffs. But Josi and Ellis were worn out and the 3rd pair was still overmatched. How do you go through that and think "meh, the current 3rd pair and utilization approach is just fine"?
There is no connection to Ellis. The Preds are signing him, or they aren't, they will never NEED to trade him. Not in a season when they want to win a Stanley Cup. He's locked in for the Cup run either way. Right now we're only talking about upgrades on the 3rd pair/injury insurance.
And the whole "injuries can mess up any team" argument is a red herring. Yes they can. That's PRECISELY why when you have $7M+ in unused cap space, Anthony Bitetto on your opening night roster, and you're hoping to win a Stanley Cup... you might want to think about making your team even better and doing what you can to insure against those injuries. You can't prevent them. They would still cause headaches. But the Preds have the room to buy at least some mitigating insurance, not every team does, and the stakes are more realistically set at the Stanley Cup level for the Preds this year than they are for many other teams.
The only reasons you wouldn't sign a defenseman in this situation are:
1) You don't have the real money - never mind the cap, there is an internal budget limit below the cap and ownership won't let you buy insurance.
2) Your hockey ops department honestly does not believe that the options available are any better than Irwin/Weber/Bitetto or Carrier as first callup in the even of injury. They like those guys, or they don't like Hamhuis and Enstrom or whoever else is out there, and consequently from a purely hockey argument there is no upgrade value whatsoever in making an addition.
3) Nobody wants to sign here. For whatever reasons, try as you might, you can't get anybody to sign. They want stupid money/term (like, REALLY stupid relative to the market, given the cap space we have at our disposal) or think the air stinks in Nashville, or whatever.
Of these, 1) would be disappointing - Preds should be doing pretty well lately, but businesses do like to make money or recoup losses when they can. 2)... well, I only have my own eyeball test on the incumbents and haven't scrutinized Hamhuis/Enstrom/Sbisa/whoever lately. Maybe I'm wrong. Emelin was clearly better than our incumbents to me, and they let him walk and nobody else wants him either. 3) I don't believe it - maybe for the higher echelon multi-year guys who are already gone elsewhere, they didn't want to be on a 3rd pairing. But now? The few remaining guys should be getting desperate and the Preds are a cozier contending landing spot than most places would be.
