Allow me to pat myself on the back...

Nashville Predators GM David Poile seems to be following my plans perfectly so far. On Tuesday I wrote that in order to assemble the best squad possible for the league minimum salary of roughly $33 million, he'd need to concentrate on re-signing his role players for minimal sums and trade Tomas Vokoun and his $5.3 million salary in order to clear up room to either retain Paul Kariya or add another difference-maker up front via free agency.

Step One: Jerred Smithson retained for $1 million over 2 years, CHECK
Step Two: Qualifying offers made to an assortment of Restricted Free Agents, CHECK
Step Three: Tomas Vokoun traded to Florida for draft picks, CHECK


Now let's focus on the remaining steps:

Step Four: Make an offer to Paul Kariya for somewhere close to what he made last year ($4.5 million)
Step Five: Hire a stats-savvy blogger as a consultant to the team for future endeavors such as this. I think you can find one here.
Step Six: Add a veteran stay-at-home type on the blue line for dependability purposes sometime next month. Over the next week I'll post my assessments of the available talent, so wait for your instructions until that time.

What I find interesting is that I can't find much discussion about trading Vokoun before my piece on Tuesday. I don't pretend to have any kind of "inside scoop", I'm just making commentary here, and it's just interesting how quickly this came to pass.