Summer in Nashville

Summer is supposed to be the time that we go on vacation, drink beer by the pool, and relax. Yet last summer was spent throwing around innocent fax machines as I waited to hear about arbitration meetings, and our team captains contract. Everything worked out fine, Weber signed a year deal and the league deemed our qualifying offers valid. So I headed into the season with hopes high that the Predators were going to make some noise in the league, and as they did, all the contract situations would solve themselves.

Alas here we are, starting another offseason disappointed and with no sure future in sight. The only thing that we can be sure of, Anders Lindback has gone to Tampa. The Preds have all types of questions: Where will Suter go, will Weber follow him or stay, who is going to the back up goalie, will the preds sign or trade for a dynamic forward, which of last years rookies are going to elevate their play, and why is Magnus Hellberg  six feet five inches instead of six feet six inches like Lindback?

This article is not about solving any of those questions, no that will come later in the summer, this article, similar to one I wrote last summer, is to say, In Poile We Trust. There is a lot of skepticism out there about Trotz, Poile and if they can win a championship. Keep the faith, a couple of bounces go the other way and the Preds could have beaten Pheonix.

Suter may walk, but trading him at the deadline would have taken away any shot we had at the cup. And we may not get Parise, Ryan, or Nash. But it was Poile, Trotz, and Fenton who put together a deep farm system that will allow us to stay in contention till we can get the right pieces. Defensive models similar to our own have won the cup before, look at the Bruins just last year, they're roster was in no way better than ours. Poile, like all great leaders, has a vision for this team and now he has the money and owner backing to make more daring moves. I have high hopes for this team and this offseason, I see good things coming to Nashville.