The Nashville Predators fans are waiting to see what happens on this Trade Deadline day.
Like no other major sport, the NHL trade deadline is usually accompanied by a flurry of trades before, during and sometimes even after as trades sent in right at the 2:00 central deadline are announced after it over. Predators fans are like others around the league wondering not only if they will get a gift to unwrap but what is in it.
The Predators have never really shied away from deadline day deals as David Poile has tried to improve his team both as a buyer and as a seller in recent years. Back in 2011, he acquired Mike Fisher from the Senators for a couple of draft picks and “Mr. Carrie Underwood” has become a popular and important part of the team since then.
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Before 2011, the Predators weren’t quite as active at the deadline although in 2007 they acquired Peter Forsberg from Philadelphia for Scottie Upshall, Ryan Parent, and a first-round and third-round selection in the 2007 Entry Draft.
In 2012, he brought in Hal Gill and Andre Kostitsyn from the Canadiens along with Paul Gaustad from the Sabres. He also brought Russian forward Alexander Radulov back from the KHL. The team looked like it was ready to make a big postseason run that seemed to fall apart when Radulov and Kostitsyn were sat down after breaking curfew at a bar in Arizona during the playoffs. It hurts to bring those memories back.
In 2013, the now-famous Filip Forsberg for Martin Erat and Michael Latta trade was made with the Washington Capitals. In the past week, Caps fans cringed a few more times as Prince Filip has been on fire with two natural Hat Tricks and 12 goals in his last 11 games.
The 2014 trade of David Legwand at the deadline isn’t quite as well known but has turned out to be a pretty fantastic deal too. They received Calle Jarnkrok who has turned into an even better and younger version of Legwand, able to do many things, increasing his scoring and now playing on the first line with Ryan Johansen and James Neal.
What doesn’t get mentioned much though is that in addition to Jarnkrok and throw in Patrick Eaves, the Preds got a conditional third round pick that turned into a second when the Redwings made the playoffs. That pick turned into Russian Center Vladislav Kamenev who looks like a Preds center of the future. He has had a good year in Milwaukee with nine goals and 22 points and led the Russian Junior team in the recent World Championships.
Last year Poile made the ill-fated trade for Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli which has been rehashed and certainly didn’t turn out like it originally looked when he made the trade. Perhaps the less said about that one the better.
Yesterday, there were a couple of trades, one which kind of made us happy. Free agent to be, Eric Staal went to the New York Rangers from Carolina. He had been rumored as a target of the Preds and we just didn’t see where he would be a good fit.
There are still strong rumors that Scott Hartnell may be a Nashville Predator before the end of the day. They are also in the mix for a couple more forwards in Radim Vrbata of Vancouver and possible Loui Eriksson of the Bruins if they can’t come to contract terms.
We will certainly be running around the internet and Twitter as well as listening to Hockey radio today to see what happens. Not only with the Predators but with some of our Western Division rivals. As we all know too well, very often those last minute deadline deals don’t work out just the way you expected them to when you made them!