Yesterday, the Predators made a couple of roster moves, waiving Zack Stortini and picking up Brian McGrattan on waivers. In a true oddity, there was a dearth of local media at practice so there was no one there to grab a quick quote on why the move was made and throw it up on Twitter.
David Boclair eventually came up with the quote from David Poile after practice.
Below, we have speculation on the reason for the move from Dirk Hoag and a feature on Stortini from Amanda DiPaolo. When the move was made, a Nashville hockey writer message board had a variety of speculation on the reason for the move.
My take was a little different than the others. Looking at David Poile's track record, he is always ready to make an upgrade at any position if the opportunity arises and the price is right. That is exactly what happened here.
Stortini had done everything that was asked of him and did a great job but the role he was placed in was being the team enforcer and keeping the mean guys on the other team away from the hoard of Predator youngsters. Stortini also had enough hockey skill to play regular shifts when needed.
While Stortini played the role well, he's not the type of guy that keeps enforcers from other teams awake at night knowing who they will face in a bout the next night. Brian McGrattan is that type of guy.
McGrattan is huge, standing 6'4" and weighing in at 235. He holds the all-time season record of 551 penalty minutes that he amassed in the 2004-05 season with Binghamton in the AHL. He has not been in the NHL in a couple of years but he is no less mean.
His mere presence in the lineup is enough to keep other teams from taking cheap shots at Craig Smith and the other youngsters. He may not play as many shifts as Stortini, but if you want an enforcer on your team, why not have the biggest, baddest guy in town. That's what the Predators have now.
Make the jump for all today's news and links...
Programming Note...
I was looking for something on the NHL Home Ice web page yesterday and was surprised to see this interview I did with Jamie Shalley at the NHL Awards show in June still up on the page as a "recent podcast."
In Pred Nation...
The news of the day yesterday was Brian McGrattan being picked up on waivers while Zack Stortini was being waived. Amanda DiPaolo has the unusual story of Stortini potentially going full circle from Milwaukee back to Milwaukee if he clears waivers.
Bryan Mullen has a nice feature on Nick Spaling at Preds.com.
Dirk Hoag tries to make sense of the move with rational thinking about the 23rd man place on the roster. He's up early today with plenty of news at his morning links.
Mark Willoughby continues his rookie diary from Mattias Ekholm (which is great stuff) and has a nice photo-essay of the Predators' "Meet the Team" party from last night. As always, it was a fan favorite where fans get to mingle with the players that they love to cheer for on the ice.
Ryan Porth says that Niclas Bergfors is anxious to break into the Preds lineup.
The Tennessean notes that Marty Erat may miss tomorrow's home opener.
Paul McCann has Stu Grimson on Slapshot Radio tonight and wants to know what the hold up is in the Save UAH Hockey campaign.
Robby Stanley takes a look at parity in all the major US sports. Hockey appears to top the list.
AJ has Part 2 of his Black Eye post at Predators AJenda with a look at the actual incident itself.
Ryan Shannon is looking for hockey that matters in Nashville and previews the Preds' weekend.
The Hockey Writers named Anders Lindback as the number one backup goalie in the NHL.
Jon Blum is the sixteenth rated prospect at Hockey's Future in the newest ranking.
Milwaukee is ready for their home opener on Friday against the Chicago Wolves.
Admirals Roundtable has the rundown on the "C's" and "A's" in Milwaukee with good guy Scott Ford at the top of the list.
Shanny TV...
Ken Campbell says that Shanny needs to keep up with the suspensions in spite of pressure from some to back off.
Brendan Shanahan is now following one of his critics on Twitter, agent Allan Walsh as revealed by Elliotte Friedman in his weekly 30 thoughts.
Around the NHL...
In lieu of facts, there still is optimism that Sidney Crosby is nearing a return.
Puck Daddy comments on Bob McKenzie's pondering that moving the Red Wings to the Southeast Division and Winnipeg to the Central may be the easy way out.
Ex-Pred Rich Peverley signed a new three year extension.
Russ Cohen has some interesting thoughts six days into the NHL regular season.
Backhand Shelf covers the range of facts on no touch icing and the discussion for or against.
Is Craig Rivet going to be the "Crash Davis" of the ECHL? On Monday, the ex-Buffalo captain signed a free-agent deal with the Elmira Jackals so that he could continue his career in North America.
Jim Balsillie's obsession with the purchase on an NHL team is now creating discussions in the financial world looking at his RIM holdings.
Odds and Ends...
It's been a few days since it was republished but I finally read Christianity Today's pre-death eulogy to Steve Jobs from last January. It is a thought provoking look at what we value as a society today. I have a new laptop, a new desktop, and a tablet. Does that mean that I've hit nirvana?
The ownership of the space shuttle Endeavour was passed to the California Science Center in ceremonies in Los Angeles yesterday. When the shuttled is delivered next year it will make its way through the streets of LA to its final resting place.
More Later...
Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass
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