Injury Report: Fisher injured 4-6 months

[Infinite Jest]

The more I think about it, the more comfortable I am with giving Ribeiro a deal. He should be cheap, sign him to a one year deal - 1.5 ~ 2mil. If you get good Ribeiro he will easily top 60 points with the potential for more, he'd be a fantastic set-up man for Neal. If you get bad Ribs, buy him out.

 

[PredsHabs]

We are 14m from the cap. That's not desperation, desperation puts a full pitch to Spezza, desperation makes a full pitch to Statsny.

Our opening day roster would likely be below the floor, since Fisher is on IR.

You missed the point. I know technically we are over the cap floor. , but our opening day roster won't be.

Poile's not desperate.

I agree 100%. I think owners are comfortable with Poile. I think we are in a transition year.
Think about it:
Gives kids another year to develop rather they play in NHL or AHL.
Cullen, Olli, and Fisher probably gone after season.
Draft class next year is a plus.
If we make playoffs good more revenue, if not good chance at franchise center.
Wilson, Smith, Jarnkrok, and Bourque are all RFA's so we will see what they are made of.
Trading for Neal was a plus and he will help top line.
Poile will continue to seek better players through trades and if he can UFA along with at the draft, Remember Poile said he would get a #1 center for Neal if not this year then next.

 

[PredsV82]

We are 14m from the cap. That's not desperation, desperation puts a full pitch to Spezza, desperation makes a full pitch to Statsny.

Our opening day roster would likely be below the floor, since Fisher is on IR.

What?.. how can you give a "full pitch" to someone who says they dont want to come here?

if you think Poile could have just talked Stastny or Spezza into coming here, youre living in an alternate universe

my point was about signing or trading for vets vs letting the youth have a shot. If Poile wasnt under pressure to get us back to the playoffs, id say there wouldnt be a doubt that hed let wilson and jarnkrok have their chance this year and let the chips fall where they may. But as it is I expect at least one more forward acquisition, maybe two.

 

[PredsV82]

I agree 100%. I think owners are comfortable with Poile. I think we are in a transition year.
Think about it:
Gives kids another year to develop rather they play in NHL or AHL.
Cullen, Olli, and Fisher probably gone after season.
Draft class next year is a plus.
If we make playoffs good more revenue, if not good chance at franchise center.
Wilson, Smith, Jarnkrok, and Bourque are all RFA's so we will see what they are made of.
Trading for Neal was a plus and he will help top line.
Poile will continue to seek better players through trades and if he can UFA along with at the draft, Remember Poile said he would get a #1 center for Neal if not this year then next.

I think you are wrong about the owners being ok with this being a transition year. Poiles comments when Trotz was fired were unequivocal. Trotz was fired because we didnt make the playoffs, and the owners expect that to change, right away.

now, that doesnt make Poile "desperate", but it does mean hes more likely to try to plug holes with vets rather than let the kids sink or swim

 

[triggrman]

What?.. how can you give a "full pitch" to someone who says they dont want to come here?

if you think Poile could have just talked Stastny or Spezza into coming here, youre living in an alternate universe

my point was about signing or trading for vets vs letting the youth have a shot. If Poile wasnt under pressure to get us back to the playoffs, id say there wouldnt be a doubt that hed let wilson and jarnkrok have their chance this year and let the chips fall where they may. But as it is I expect at least one more forward acquisition, maybe two.

Because that's not what happened. Spezza's agent said to check back Poile said that's not his job.

When asked whether his client would change his mind about going to Nashville, Spezza’s agent Rick Curran said, “I really can’t say one way or another. Nashville was on Jason’s list that we put together a while ago and without the benefit of a crystal ball, I can’t say. Call me in three or four days and we might have a better answer.”

Then Poile goes on his rant..

Did he pitch Spezza personally on coming to Nashville.

“I didn’t. I could have, but I didn’t after he said he didn’t want to come here,” he said. “I’m not going to pitch somebody if they don’t want to play for us. You have to be committed.

“Doesn’t this work both ways?" Poile asked. "Someone can actually call me if they want to play for us.”

Yeah, he sounds desperate.

You can spin this however but Spezza's agent and even Murray made it sound like some thoughts could change. Poile didn't care, he was upset and done with Spezza.

 

[PredsV82]

Because that's not what happened. Spezza's agent said to check back Poile said that's not his job.



Then Poile goes on his rant..



Yeah, he sounds desperate.

You can spin this however but Spezza's agent and even Murray made it sound like some thoughts could change. Poile didn't care, he was upset and done with Spezza.

As he should have been. No point in trading the assets for someone only signed for one year. And that "Check back in three or four days" is total bullspit. If, as was widely reported, there was a deal in place for Spezza to Nashville, you know good and well that the Sens GM said something to Spezza about waiving and was told no.

but you are still missing the point. Im not saying Poile is despearte as much as he is aware of what is expected, which is playoffs, now.

 

[NSH615]

Because that's not what happened. Spezza's agent said to check back Poile said that's not his job.



Then Poile goes on his rant..



Yeah, he sounds desperate.

You can spin this however but Spezza's agent and even Murray made it sound like some thoughts could change. Poile didn't care, he was upset and done with Spezza.

I kind of feel like this, just based on past comments.But when you look at the 3-4 days comment, my mind changes about this incident. Poile wanted a trade and he wanted it at that moment, not 4 days later after the draft when the FA's were going to be signing. He couldn't a deal with Murray done, so he called Rutherford.

 

[triggrman]

No, Murray even said he there was a possibility later for a Nashville to Spezza deal. I can find those quotes too if you need me too. Poile closed the door on Spezza and moved on to Neal, but my point was, Poile was not full court pressing to save his job. He was offended someone had him on their no trade list.

Doesn't matter now, I agree, but Poile didn't add someone because above all else he's not going to overspend, even if he job is on the line, he's not driving up salaries.

IMHO, we've only gone cheaper since the cap team comments. We traded Legwand's 4.5M salary for Jarnkrok, Erat's 4.5m for Forsberg, and Klein's 3m contract for Vols 1M.

We did increase Hornqvist and Spalings, but not to the tune of the 12M we've saved over the last 2 seasons.

I know this rant should be somewhere else, I just get tired of the excuses all the time. IMHO Poile has to do better.

Feeling extremely frustrated.

 

[NSH615]

No, Murray even said he there was a possibility later for a Nashville to Spezza deal. I can find those quotes too if you need me too. Poile closed the door on Spezza and moved on to Neal, but my point was, Poile was not full court pressing to save his job. He was offended someone had him on their no trade list.

I get what your saying here and normally I would agree with you as he does seem to kind of pout when he doesn't get his way, but he used the pieces he would have used to get Spezza to get Neal. He wanted a deal before or at the draft not at free agency. Yes he could have tried another offer to get Spezza but at that point what would we have had to offer? Weber?

 

[PredsV82]

I get what your saying here and normally I would agree with you as he does seem to kind of pout when he doesn't get his way, but he used the pieces he would have used to get Spezza to get Neal. He wanted a deal before or at the draft not at free agency. Yes he could have tried another offer to get Spezza but at that point what would we have had to offer? Weber?

this is the crux of the issue... the pieces Poile was offering for Spezza were the same pieces he used for Neal.. So once the Neal trade was done there was really no point in pursuing Spezza anyway because the pieces we would have given were gone. and Spezzas agent's BS comment about "check back in 3 or 4 days" only reinforces that... I mean really, 3 or 4 days? does the agenmt not have a phone, was he needing to mail Spezza a question about whether he'd change his mind?? Its all just a load of crap.. Spezza was never coming here and he's best forgotten... we got neal instead which is loads better because he's under contract for 4 more years.

 

[tampa pred]

this is the crux of the issue... the pieces Poile was offering for Spezza were the same pieces he used for Neal.. So once the Neal trade was done there was really no point in pursuing Spezza anyway because the pieces we would have given were gone. and Spezzas agent's BS comment about "check back in 3 or 4 days" only reinforces that... I mean really, 3 or 4 days? does the agenmt not have a phone, was he needing to mail Spezza a question about whether he'd change his mind?? Its all just a load of crap.. Spezza was never coming here and he's best forgotten... we got neal instead which is loads better because he's under contract for 4 more years.

This is the way I see it also. Poile had a deal in place that was much better than what Ottawa accepted for Spezza. If there was any chance that he would play for us, it would have happened. The Neal deal happened instead, and the Preds are better off for it.

Even if Poile had laid out the red carpet and convinced Spezza to come here, you guys would be all over Poile when Spezza signs elsewhere next year. I'd much rather have a signed Neal who is one of the best snipers in the league.

 

[tampa pred]

The more I think about it, the more comfortable I am with giving Ribeiro a deal. He should be cheap, sign him to a one year deal - 1.5 ~ 2mil. If you get good Ribeiro he will easily top 60 points with the potential for more, he'd be a fantastic set-up man for Neal. If you get bad Ribs, buy him out.

While he would help us on the ice, there is no way the Predators would consider signing him. You are talking about the team that suspended its two best forwards during the second round of the playoffs for missing curfew. No way we sign Ribeiro until he cleans himself up.

 

[Privy]

While he would help us on the ice, there is no way the Predators would consider signing him. You are talking about the team that suspended its two best forwards during the second round of the playoffs for missing curfew. No way we sign Ribeiro until he cleans himself up.

That was Trotz. Nashville has a history of helping guys recover (Tootoo) or having guys who recovered (Clune, McGratton). At this point, I wouldn't mind Ribeiro on a one year contract. Between Clune and Weber, hopefully they would get his head back on straight. He still has the speed and hands to play in the NHL. If Wilson can't set up Neal, then you'd have Ribeiro to take his spot.

 

[triggrman]

I'll be the first to admit, I don't have the answers, if I did, I'd be in Poile's position, because he doesn't have the anwsers either.

I know this. Going into the season with our top centers being Jokinen, Wilson and a rookie Jarnkrok is probably the weakest we've had as a franchise.

I hope Lavi can perform some magic, because Poile has done him no favors.

 

[Dave is a killer]

I'll be the first to admit, I don't have the answers, if I did, I'd be in Poile's position, because he doesn't have the anwsers either.

I know this. Going into the season with our top centers being Jokinen, Wilson and a rookie Jarnkrok is probably the weakest we've had as a franchise.

I hope Lavi can perform some magic, because Poile has done him no favors.

Is Poile done as a GM in the NHL ? Has the game passed him by ?

 

[triggrman]

I don't know. We'll soon found out if he was drafting the talent and it wasn't developing correctly or if it just wasn't quality to begin with.

I don't think he's done good enough getting us a center though. Jokinen, doesn't cut it.

 

[PredsV82]

Is Poile done as a GM in the NHL ? Has the game passed him by ?

silly question. Poile has made three amazingly good trades and only one really bad one in the last two years. He just had what pretty much everyone says is a great draft. Thats hardly a sign of the "game passing him by". Is he a victim of circumstance? yes. But he is no more washed up as a GM than Ken holland, who hasnt done squat for his team, or the Finn that is CBJs new GM, who really hasnt done squat for his team so far this summer...

 

[tampa pred]

Is Poile done as a GM in the NHL ? Has the game passed him by ?

If we fired Poile, he would not be unemployed long. He is blamed for being too conservative, but he has made 5 trades in the last couple of years. Four were good, one very bad.

Erat and ? for Forsberg- Big win. Erat is done. Forsberg has a ton of potential.

Hendrix for a small cap dump- Righted a big wrong by dumping an absolutely horrible contract for a redundant player.

Klein for Del Zotto- OK, this one gutted me. Klein was perfect for our second line, but when we drafted Jones and none of our righties could play the left side, something had to give. Unfortunately Del Zotto didn't work out. Can't win them all.

Legwand for Hook and a 2nd- Are you kidding me? Highway robbery. We could have even re-signed Legwand last week had we wanted to.

Hornquist and Spals for Neal- Great trade. Spals was too good to let walk, but signing him would leave the roster with no flexibility. Packaging him to upgrade Hornquist to Neal killed two birds with one stone. Managing to pull it off without our 1st being included was brilliant.

Everybody was thrilled with Poile after draft weekend. What has he done since for people to want him gone? He couldn't sign Statzny or Vanek; both of which already knew where they were going to sign. No other forward (besides maybe Iginla) was really going to improve this team. I think that people are more upset about what other teams in our division did to improve and somehow blame that on Poile.

 

[NSH615]

If we fired Poile, he would not be unemployed long. He is blamed for being too conservative, but he has made 5 trades in the last couple of years. Four were good, one very bad.

Erat and ? for Forsberg- Big win. Erat is done. Forsberg has a ton of potential.

Hendrix for a small cap dump- Righted a big wrong by dumping an absolutely horrible contract for a redundant player.

Klein for Del Zotto- OK, this one gutted me. Klein was perfect for our second line, but when we drafted Jones and none of our righties could play the left side, something had to give. Unfortunately Del Zotto didn't work out. Can't win them all.

Legwand for Hook and a 2nd- Are you kidding me? Highway robbery. We could have even re-signed Legwand last week had we wanted to.

Hornquist and Spals for Neal- Great trade. Spals was too good to let walk, but signing him would leave the roster with no flexibility. Packaging him to upgrade Hornquist to Neal killed two birds with one stone. Managing to pull it off without our 1st being included was brilliant.

Everybody was thrilled with Poile after draft weekend. What has he done since for people to want him gone? He couldn't sign Statzny or Vanek; both of which already knew where they were going to sign. No other forward (besides maybe Iginla) was really going to improve this team. I think that people are more upset about what other teams in our division did to improve and somehow blame that on Poile.

For me it was the comments that he made saying he wasn't really shopping for FA's. I was mad at the time, but I've gotten over it. Would it be nice if he could have brought in an upgrade at C, yes, but I didn't want him to gut the future in a trade to do so either.

 

[PredsV82]

For me it was the comments that he made saying he wasn't really shopping for FA's. I was mad at the time, but I've gotten over it. Would it be nice if he could have brought in an upgrade at C, yes, but I didn't want him to gut the future in a trade to do so either.

Ill say again, he made these comments after the 5 day "discussion period" prior to July 1. i think he talked to a lot of UFA's agents, and found out that none of the big name guys had us on their list, and thus the "Im not really shopping on day 1" is simply a better way to say it than "I called everyone and nobody wants to come here"

 

[tampa pred]

For me it was the comments that he made saying he wasn't really shopping for FA's. I was mad at the time, but I've gotten over it. Would it be nice if he could have brought in an upgrade at C, yes, but I didn't want him to gut the future in a trade to do so either.

We realistically only had two roster spots open: Spaling and Del Zotto.

Del Zotto was replaced by Volchenkov which was a great signing.

Spaling's spot is still open (we now know that Joke is Fisher's replacement) with Beck, Scissons, Moser, Watson, and Forsberg waiting for a shot.

Poile's comment about not signing someone just for the sake of signing someone is dead on. Anyone that we sign would have to be measurably better than the potential of one of our young guys. After the top three or four UFA forwards signed elsewhere (we did not have a shot at any of them), no other UFA forward fit the bill.

 

[Armourboy]

No, Murray even said he there was a possibility later for a Nashville to Spezza deal. I can find those quotes too if you need me too. Poile closed the door on Spezza and moved on to Neal, but my point was, Poile was not full court pressing to save his job. He was offended someone had him on their no trade list.

Doesn't matter now, I agree, but Poile didn't add someone because above all else he's not going to overspend, even if he job is on the line, he's not driving up salaries.

IMHO, we've only gone cheaper since the cap team comments. We traded Legwand's 4.5M salary for Jarnkrok, Erat's 4.5m for Forsberg, and Klein's 3m contract for Vols 1M.

We did increase Hornqvist and Spalings, but not to the tune of the 12M we've saved over the last 2 seasons.

I know this rant should be somewhere else, I just get tired of the excuses all the time. IMHO Poile has to do better.

Feeling extremely frustrated.

We've gone cheaper for the short term, but you have to look at why, and then you come to the conclusion that none of those had anything to do with saving money.

Erat wanted out, Poile wasn't trying to dump him at the time. The fact he got Forsberg out of the deal is insane when you think about it.

Legwand was at the end of his contract, and as much as we all *****ed about getting nothing for Suter, Poile wasn't going to make that mistake again. The fact he got Jarnkrok and a 2nd is mind blowing really.

Klein definitely wasn't about the money, dude was on a sweetheart of a contract. It was a move made to help the roster. It didn't work out obviously but in this game no one is 100%.

Now had those moves been made to shed the contracts, I would share your frustration, the fact is though they were simply good hockey moves.

The Spezza deal I believe has all come down to timing. Poile wanted a deal done before the Draft, the agent saying to give him 3-4 days was basically the agent nicely saying it wasn't going to happen. Did it tick Poile off? Yeah it did, but he retooled the offer elsewhere and actually got a better deal. Now could he have maybe done another offer for Spezza? Its possible, but frankly I think he already had read the writing on the wall, he would of been wasting his time so he didn't bother.

I certainly don't think the moves have been to save money, and I certainly don't think not signing FA has anything to do with saving money. He just isn't going to go out and spend stupid money on 3rd line forwards. He already tried that the previous year and how did that turn out?

 

[NSH615]

Ill say again, he made these comments after the 5 day "discussion period" prior to July 1. i think he talked to a lot of UFA's agents, and found out that none of the big name guys had us on their list, and thus the "Im not really shopping on day 1" is simply a better way to say it than "I called everyone and nobody wants to come here"

This is why I said I was mad at the time but have since gotten over it.

Still the "not really shopping" comment still irks me to an extent, and it's just the wording. I think he could have said something to the effect of we still have some deals we are working on and can't comment any further. The not really shopping made it sound as if he wasn't trying.

 

[triggrman]

I think it's ******** to assume that no one else would come here because Kesler didn't have us on his short list and Spezza had us on an old no trade list.

Vanek mentioned he was close to signing with the Islanders. I would have loved to hear that we also had a great offer out there. None the less, I guess.

As far as it being a waste of time, I'll disagree, it's his job to explore every option to make the team better, even if it doesn't seem like a waste of time. Remember, he also didn't think Arnott wanted to come here......


All and all, I'm just tired of the "we think the kids are ready to step up" year after year only to find out, they aren't.

 

[deanwormer]

GMDP is on record multiple times over the last couple years as saying these kids are good enough. Big part of Trotz being gone is just that - he couldn't get what Poile said he should have out of them. Spals. Bourque. Wilson. Those specifically Poile has mentioned as being top 6 guys, right? We know that's his expectation for Hook, too. So why - even after Fish goes down - would he go after anyone who's not a legit Top 3? We got one of those, and I suspect he wants another, not just a top 6 guy. If the kids are that good, or he has that expectation, he should expect one or more of them to step into Fish's role, shouldn't he?