General Question about upcoming UFA's

[thecloser]

Since the MDZ, Klein trade, i have been thinking about the opportunity of signing UFA's.

If we sign MDZ to a multi-year contract (somewhere around 4-7yrs) and lock him up with Webs, Josi, and Jones our top 4 would be complete. I know it's only been one game that we've seen Del Zotto in a Preds uni, but I have to believe he'll soon find his way onto the PP. That's his niche, along with finding forwards in stride and a great passing ability. A lot of my buddies are Rangers fans so I've had the luxury of watching MDZ for a while now. He's gonna be good here and a change in coaches and style of play will help him. He's gonna have a lot more offensive chances because that's exactly what we need.

If we lock him up and I think we will, do you think UFA's will consider coming to Nashville more? With a damn good top 4 defense, a healthy Rinne (hopefully) coming back for next year and Smith finally emerging and Stalberg and others hopefully getting it together and showing up and possibly a forward in the draft, is it possible we could emerge as a destination for some scoring forwards that are UFA's. Obviously we wouldn't be the top destination but does our top 4 and goaltending situation put more thought into coming here for other guys?

I think yes but I'm curious to see what fellow Smashville fans think.

Click to read more...

 

[thecloser]

oh. you guys really think so. cool.

 

[PredsHabs]

I have never understood why more Free Agents do not want to come here.

+'s
NO STATE INCOME TAX
Smaller market=not as much stress from media
Weber and Rinne-need I say more
Great place to live
Cheaper living prices than bigger cities such as LA and New York
Respected Coach and GM around the NHL(we may be getting tired of the style)

-'s
I cannot name one


Maybe this year it will happen but the problem is who will actually make it to be a free agent. Moulson? Vanek? Statsny? I would not mind two of the three if we could get them. Lets hope it goes well but Who really knows. I just hope Poile does not spend money for the sake of spending money like he did this past year.

 

[Armourboy]

Biggest problem we have is that we aren't a name/big city. Look at how many guys in other professional sports will go to crap teams just because they are in NY or LA or other major market.

In the case of hockey, if you can't get a contender to sign you, you want to be signed at one of the " old teams ". I think it tends to feed players ego's, well until they get gobbled up by the press coverage and get run out of town on a rail.

If you notice though, most of the time if we do get a FA they never seem to want to leave, or at least not leave the area. Its a great place to live and raise a family and we've seen that time after time.

I think at this point the larger issue is the coaching staff. Take Suter for instance, he left as much because he couldn't convince any goal scorer to come play here because of Trotz and his system, not even his best buddy. I can't blame them either, why would you go play for a guy that is going to take your 30 goals a year and turn it into 20 just because of his system?

 

[Bad Karma]

This UFA pool isn't going to be that great, they'd have to severely overpay guys who might score 25 goals for them. Being on a budget hampers a lot of who they can sign. The taxes evens out in the end.

Moulson? Vanek? Statsny?

You might be able to sign Moulson, Vanek and Stastny are going to be too expensive for Nashville then they already making north of $6.5M.

 

[Enoch]

Add to that Gaborik and likely Brad Richards.

Honestly, all five are better than any forward we have on the roster, save for Moulson who is a better goal-scorer than the rest of the roster, while not being as complete of a forward as others.

This organization HAS to go after goal-scoring help. The refusal to do that last year is inexcusable.

 

[RaiderDoug]

-'s
I cannot name one

The team has never been a contender or a big winner. In 2006, the best team we had on paper- crapped out in the first round.

I know we all like to pride ourselves on how scrappy we are and how Poile/Trotz can "do more with less" and all that nice stuff.

But take a look at the list of teams that, since we've been in existence, have never made it to a SCF or a conference final:

Atlanta/Peg
Columbus.
Nashville.

No one plays hockey to just to make the playoffs. No one wants to join a team that has a history of flaming out in the 1st round.


Let's be objective here. If you're a free agent - and you're looking at Nashville - the best you see yourself doing is playing in defensive system and maybe making the 8th seed before getting clobbered by a real team.

Why the heck do you want to sign up for that if you have other competitive offers?

 

[Bad Karma]

Add to that Gaborik and likely Brad Richards.

Honestly, all five are better than any forward we have on the roster, save for Moulson who is a better goal-scorer than the rest of the roster, while not being as complete of a forward as others.

This organization HAS to go after goal-scoring help. The refusal to do that last year is inexcusable.

Richards would be taking a massive paycut if he were to come here, he's also too close to 35 to warrant anything more than 3 years. Gaborik spends way too much time on IR for him to be a possibility.

 

[Nothing Is New]

Honestly, in general I don't think Nashville is a desired destination for free agents. How it is perceived: Small southernish city far away from the traditional markets, defensive oriented play, uncertain long term future.

To that end, I don't see the wisdom of going after UFAs - unless in an extraordinary circumstance a premium talent wants to come here. Concentrate on draft picks and having a system (as we seem to) that develops those draft picks. Build that way. Only thing is - the forever-issue- if we have Trotz, we will probably never have a system that is attractive to offensively skilled players/picks.

 

[Bad Karma]

Most players love it here, the team has been able to win with good talent, they've had it before, but $$$ has always been the biggest issue. Kariya at $4.5M was a steal for them, they were fortunate he had been injured and was willing to take less.

 

[Enoch]

Unrestricted free agency has never been about "wisdom" or good deals.

It has always been about acquiring talent at the premium price of money. No development or draft picks necessary.

This team has a complete void of offensive star power outside of the potential of Forsberg, pre-shoulder injury Colin Wilson, and possible emergence of Craig Smith. Even there, the latter two are par for the course top 6 wingers.

With that in mind, you attack free agency with the mindset of addressing what you have been unable to acquire through trade or the draft for nearly the entire time this team has been inception. It makes no sense to use all of your $$ in unrestricted free agency to address what is already in the pipeline (see Hendricks, Nystrom, Gaustad with the likes of Beck, Watson, Sissons, Salomaki, ETC! waiting to be called up).

 

[thecloser]

money really isn't going to be much of an issue as the cap continues to climb. We're gonna have around 10-12 million to spend i believe.just kinda throwing that number out there. but a moulson, gaborik, etc wouldn't be out of reach.

but i have to agree. it's about the system. new coach needed.

 

[Dave is a killer]

money really isn't going to be much of an issue as the cap continues to climb. We're gonna have around 10-12 million to spend i believe.just kinda throwing that number out there. but a moulson, gaborik, etc wouldn't be out of reach.

but i have to agree. it's about the system. new coach needed.

clean slate this mother ****er, it all starts with the GM.

 

[Viqsi]

But take a look at the list of teams that, since we've been in existence, have never made it to a SCF or a conference final:

Atlanta/Peg
Columbus.
Nashville.

For one, you forgot Washington (their last SCF trip was the season before the Preds played, and they missed the playoffs the next year) and Florida. St. Louis is close, as they only have one conference finals appearance in that timeframe (lost 4-1) and it was fourteen years ago.

For another, I love how you casually threw in "or a conference final" to keep the list small. If you stick to teams that haven't made the Cup finals in that time, the list is considerably longer:
Toronto
St. Louis
Washington
Winnipeg/Phoenix
NYI
San Jose
Montreal
Florida
NYR
Nashville
Atlanta/Winnipeg
Minnesota
Columbus

I think this "don't be fooled, we're actually losers" narrative is being very dramatically overstated.
and also there's a whole bunch of spoiled brats here who don't know real sucky hockey suffering if it whacked 'em in the face...

 

[Bushleaguer]

"Casually" threw that in there? Really? Coming off a tad too defensive there. He makes a valid point, wasn't twisting any stats to make that point. Preds are historically a solid regular season team that fails to achieve any real success when it truly matters.

 

[preds1]

Gotta do something. This forward group might get us to the first round at best.
Happy with the D as it is tho.

It'll be tough to pull off.

 

[Enoch]

There is no denying they Poile and Trotz have built a class organization with top notch goaltending and defensive pipeline. We also do a decent job of churning out 2-way players. The problem is developing more pure offensive talent as well as a system that doesn't staunch creativity in the offensive end...

We probably would have done far worse with just about anyone else as GM, but that does not mean we could not take a step forward now.

 

[Viqsi]

"Casually" threw that in there? Really? Coming off a tad too defensive there. He makes a valid point, wasn't twisting any stats to make that point. Preds are historically a solid regular season team that fails to achieve any real success when it truly matters.

I strongly recommend extensive research on the history of expansion teams in the NHL and how they tend to do and how long it takes for them to be competitive, and what they look like along the way. Might help y'all be a little more appreciative of what those two have done. Now, if recent signs do mean what they suggest and they have truly regressed (and we should know that within, oh, six to eight months), then I'll say it's probably time to move on.

But for several here, this "we demand new blood" witchhunt has been ongoing ever since Peter Forsberg didn't work out - for which they have never, ever forgiven Poile and Trotz - and have just been begging for an excuse to fire 'em since. (Me, I would have thought that the way this team managed to rebound after Leipold and Balsille tried to dismantle it would have redeemed those two, but apparently "recovering from potential disaster" doesn't count as a good thing for some folks. No, for such folks it's all about an uninterrupted, no-setbacks, no-delays-allowed constant-progress-to-the-top and g-d forbid you don't stay at the top forever or else SOMEONE'S GOTTA PAY.)

 

[adsfan]

Unrestricted free agency has never been about "wisdom" or good deals.

It has always been about acquiring talent at the premium price of money. No development or draft picks necessary.

This team has a complete void of offensive star power outside of the potential of Forsberg, pre-shoulder injury Colin Wilson, and possible emergence of Craig Smith. Even there, the latter two are par for the course top 6 wingers.

With that in mind, you attack free agency with the mindset of addressing what you have been unable to acquire through trade or the draft for nearly the entire time this team has been inception. It makes no sense to use all of your $$ in unrestricted free agency to address what is already in the pipeline (see Hendricks, Nystrom, Gaustad with the likes of Beck, Watson, Sissons, Salomaki, ETC! waiting to be called up).

You get my vote for best post in this thread!

 

[adsfan]

I strongly recommend extensive research on the history of expansion teams in the NHL and how they tend to do and how long it takes for them to be competitive, and what they look like along the way. Might help y'all be a little more appreciative of what those two have done. Now, if recent signs do mean what they suggest and they have truly regressed (and we should know that within, oh, six to eight months), then I'll say it's probably time to move on.

But for several here, this "we demand new blood" witchhunt has been ongoing ever since Peter Forsberg didn't work out - for which they have never, ever forgiven Poile and Trotz - and have just been begging for an excuse to fire 'em since. (Me, I would have thought that the way this team managed to rebound after Leipold and Balsille tried to dismantle it would have redeemed those two, but apparently "recovering from potential disaster" doesn't count as a good thing for some folks. No, for such folks it's all about an uninterrupted, no-setbacks, no-delays-allowed constant-progress-to-the-top and g-d forbid you don't stay at the top forever or else SOMEONE'S GOTTA PAY.)

I never thought that Floppa would work out in Nashville. I believed that he was over the hill when he came to the Preds. The broken foot just reinforced my opinion. Kariya was a much better deal. When I told my daughter that the Preds had signed Kariya, she thought that I was kidding! It was a bolt from the blue. Fish was similar. They need to do that 1 or 2 more times in the next few years. Are there any more good looking country singers that would marry a hockey player? It could be a guy for all that I care!

 

[Byrddog]

The road to help from F/A at this point is in the exact position it was when we got Kariya. It was a double edged sword with him and that signing resulted in him influencing others to sign here. Dumont and Arnott in particular. The Preds took a chance on Karyia giving hima contract larger than he would have gotten elsewhere given the circumstance. He was coming back from a near career ending knee injury, he did make it back but his game did take a hit but he was still the best sniper the Preds had ever had. While 31 and 24 goals from him was great at the time for this team he was well below what an uninjured Karyia had done.

This looks to be the only way the Preds are going to sign someone from F/A this time around as well.

The argument about Trotz is pretty sensless DP would be fired before him and I just don't see either one having there job in jeapordy. As was posted earlier the fanbase has been spoiled. Making the playoffs is a big thing for $ something this organization needs. Last year the team lost 800k even with all those (Sell Outs). And It looks like they will lose money again this year since playoffs are a pipedream. Perhaps DP steps aside but its going to take a lot more to get Trotz gone. At one point we have all been ready to get rid of him. And I thought that was close a couple weeks ago when it was appearing he had lost the room. But the rant he made after giving up 3 goals in the first and the team responding only provides proof he has not lost the players.

This is going to be a long re-build and it is going to have to be thru the system developing players. Prospects and draft picks should be the focus now. I don't see the compliance buyouts being used. Many want Goose and Sthalberg to be bought out butn that would cost 15 mil this team doers not have just laying around. So best case DP finds someone at the deadline that will take them for picks.

The talent in the pipeline minus FF and Scissions is well ho hum. Beck, Watson et al are not upgrades to the current roster now or they would be here playing. This years draft is not particularly strong after the top three theres just not much there and one of the top three is a defenseman.

This is the reality the current roster is decent every few games and horrid the remainder. The lack of talent and aging veterans in decline in productivity provide a team who attempt to score by committee have success at times and ply uninspiring and boring frustrating hockey most of the time. The defense is now suspect and truthfully is not at the top of the league any longer. Combine that with the uncertainty of Pekka returning it is troublesome. There is scarce information on Rinnes return is a concern as well. went from missing 4 to 6 weeks to this point its questionable if he returns this season, and what damage that infection did to the hip joint.


Lots of questions but par for the course like the KK trade we are in the dark. All we do is speculate and banter the same topics over and over.

 

[worstfaceoffmanever]

money really isn't going to be much of an issue as the cap continues to climb. We're gonna have around 10-12 million to spend i believe.just kinda throwing that number out there. but a moulson, gaborik, etc wouldn't be out of reach.

but i have to agree. it's about the system. new coach needed.

We're going to have $24.3M in cap space before we sign our RFAs, which makes me completely okay with loading up the money truck in an effort to lure in Vanek.

 

[dulzhok]

Most players love it here, the team has been able to win with good talent, they've had it before, but $$$ has always been the biggest issue. Kariya at $4.5M was a steal for them, they were fortunate he had been injured and was willing to take less.

We were fortunate Kariya called us and told us he wanted to play here.

It's more folklore around here about free agents not wanting to play here. Who? Maybe Parise? Who else do we know for a fact turn "turned us down"?

Fact is very few top line free agents become available, at least in their prime. Parise was one of the recent ones. Hossa maybe one of the few others. UFA is not a way to acquire top line talent.

Back when Kariya and Arnott called us we were a franchise on the rise. There was good buzz about us. But since then "our brand" has dimished. Poile was complacent and we have not taken the next step. Our star players (Suter, Weber) called Poile out and said they want more talent to play with. We only got worse.

If FAs don't want to play here, it's because of the lack of talent. Vanek, you have your pick of playing with Matt Cullen, David Legwand, or Paul Guastad-- PUKE. We aint getting him unless we massively overpay, I mean massively.

 

[Dadof5boys]

We were fortunate Kariya called us and told us he wanted to play here.

It's more folklore around here about free agents not wanting to play here. Who? Maybe Parise? Who else do we know for a fact turn "turned us down"?

Fact is very few top line free agents become available, at least in their prime. Parise was one of the recent ones. Hossa maybe one of the few others. UFA is not a way to acquire top line talent.

Back when Kariya and Arnott called us we were a franchise on the rise. There was good buzz about us. But since then "our brand" has dimished. Poile was complacent and we have not taken the next step. Our star players (Suter, Weber) called Poile out and said they want more talent to play with. We only got worse.

If FAs don't want to play here, it's because of the lack of talent. Vanek, you have your pick of playing with Matt Cullen, David Legwand, or Paul Guastad-- PUKE. We aint getting him unless we massively overpay, I mean massively.

I agree; I think it will be an overpayment if you happen to get any of the top offensive free agents. At this point though, I would hope they overpay for someone as long as they have a legitmate track record. That may open the flood gate to attract other "scorers" here in the future at a more reasonable rate.

 

[GeauxPreds]

I think a lot of people are underrating this draft because of it's lack of obvious starpower outside Reinhart Ekbald, and now Bennet. The middle of the round is still looking to be close to on par with last year. If the preds are picking between 6-12th which is where it looks like they'll land barring some sort of miracle run to end the season they could end up with someone who has a great offensive upside like Draisaitl or even Nylander depending on how their stock rises and falls over the course of the next few months. Perlini also would look like a good fit for the team and more of a typical predators pick than a potential high risk high reward pick like the previous two. If we pick up a mid to late first in the legwand trade we could also end up with someone late first round like Ho-sang. This draft may not have as many of the sexy names as last year or next year but I think the preds can still pick up some serviceable players and that this draft isn't nearly as weak as people are making it out to be, especially if the poile and the preds are willing to gamble on someone like Nylander/Draisaitl. In good news there's only two defensemen projected to go in the top ten so we probably won't end up with a defensemen where we pick