With an extended break for the Nashville Predators before their game against Chicago tomorrow, we thought now would be a good time to look around the NHL to see how some of the Preds' off-season departures are doing in their new homes (thanks to OTF reader Russell for the suggestion). It's not a particularly depressing effort, either, because Nashville has moved right along with few ill effects from losing some key players.
Anyway, after the jump, you'll find some familiar faces...
Arnott, Nashville's former captain, has stepped into New Jersey and filled much the same role he did in Nashville - he leads the Devils in goals, but its rough sailing at the defensive end of the rink. Sure, the Preds probably miss his offensive production, but its only because Matthew Lombardi has missed so much time to injury. With a healthy Lombardi and the emergence of Cal O`Reilly, Arnott would be superfluous.
A marginal NHL player, Boyd failed to stick with the Habs after being a part of the trade that sent Sergei Kostitsyn to Nashville, and was unceremoniously waived earlier this month.
Relocating from the safety of playing behind Shea Weber, Ryan Suter, Dan Hamhuis, Francis Bouillon, and Kevin Klein has not been particularly kind to the erstwhile tweeter, who is putting up some pretty horrible stats in Tampa Bay.
'Hammer" is providing Vancouver largely what he did Nashville - a solid, but unspectacular 3rd defenseman (albeit playing on the Canucks' top pair) who is prone to some baffling mistakes. His offensive statistics are up slightly, but you can chalk that up to getting more time on Vancouver's power play than he ever did in Nashville.
Bottom six grinder in Music City, bottom six grinder in Edmonton. Ryan Jones was a bit of a fan favorite here, but was never going to be a long term fit and appears to work better with the Oilers, despite having eerily similar statistics.
Unexpectedly, this might be the loss that hurts the most, simply because Mike Santorelli is now putting up the numbers we expected of him. It seems like the situation is Rich Peverley 2.0, but when you consider that David Poile had to choose between Cal O`Reilly and Santorelli, and Mike apparently wasn't willing to to do what it took in Barry Trotz's system, it was an easy decision.
One more thing - when Mike Santorelli hits 35 games played this season, the 5th round pick the Predators received in exchange becomes Florida's 4th round pick in 2011.
Denis Grebeshkov, Dave Scatchard, and Ben Guite all spent time in Nashville in 2009-10, but are left off this list because none of them are playing in the NHL this year.
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