Predators Stand Pat on Deadline Day

The Nashville Predators held on to what they had and did not make any deals leading up to Wednesday’s NHL trade deadline. Overall, this year was much quieter on the trade front than in the recent past due primarily to more teams still being in the playoff picture.

In the past few days, Captain Jason Arnott had spoken publicly asking for addition help for the Predators that have been offensively challenged until their recent five game winning streak. David Poile appearing on Nashville radio station 104.5 “The Zone” on Wednesday afternoon indicated, “that was certainly a concern but we’ve got some good chemistry with what we have now”.

Poile further stated that “Prices were fairly high for what you could get. There were not too many players that we were excited about as to how they would fit in with this club”.

Standing pat is a rarity for Poile who said, “In all my years, this was the first year that I did not make a deal”.

Poile confirmed that he had discussions with GM Brian Burke of Toronto about Nik Andropov’s availability. He indicated that the price was too high with Burke wanting a second round pick plus a conditional pick for what would probably be a rental player type situation.

Poile indicated that the return of Steve Sullivan was “the best acquisition we could make. We could not have gotten a better player from another team”.

On Tuesday night in an interview on the Nashville Predator’s web site, Poile indicated that the return of injured players mean mote to the Preds than players that will be available at the deadline. Poile explained, “if we do nothing tomorrow I think we will be way better off in another week than we are today just for the fact if we get those guys (Bonk, Erat, Nichol, Sulzer) healthy. There may not be too many players traded tomorrow who would be more valuable to us than those guys”.

Only time will tell if the Predator’s deadline strategy was successful. If the Preds make the playoffs and go past the first round, David Poile will be considered a genius. If the Predators fall short of their goals then all fingers will be pointed in Poile’s direction. Such is life at the top of an NHL team.

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass