Nashville Predators: Ripple Effect to the Ryan Ellis Trade
By Chad Minton
Keeping the players happy
There’s a lot of talk swirling around about the culture of the team after trading to key player like Ellis and Arvidsson. It’s understandable that the core players like Filip Forsberg might be upset, but it’s a business ultimately and this core hasn’t produced encouraging results for four seasons.
Forsberg is a player that deserves a contract extensions and needs to be on the top of the pile on things to do on David Poile’s desk right now. Poile says they’re working on it, per Brooks Bratten:
#Preds GM David Poile reiterates having extra cap space and the ability to be flexible with a flat cap for the foreseeable future is a positive. Poile says Filip Forsberg and Mattias Ekholm are two players the Preds would like to sit down with and discuss extending them soon.
— Brooks Bratten 🍪 (@brooksbratten) July 17, 2021
I’m seeing a lot of chatter about current players being unhappy with this trade and not being willing to re-sign, with Forsberg at the forefront of that thinking. Let me just say that is ridiculous.
If Forsberg chooses to not re-sign for a contract extension due to trading Arvidsson and Ellis, then he wasn’t the franchise player I’ve always thought him to be. I don’t think that’s the case, and Poile needs to get a contract worked out with him quickly once the dust settles. I get it, he’s a busy man.
Mattias Ekholm is another player that should be in firm line to get a contract extension with Ellis traded away. We already thought it should happen, but this kind of confirms it.