The Dan Hamhuis Derby: will he stay or will he go?

In the past few days, the interwebs have been hopping with rampant speculation on the destination of Predators' UFA-to-be Dan Hamhuis. We've heard rumors that he was headed to Philadelphia for Ryan Parent, then we heard that David Poile wanted Ryan Parent AND Braydon Coburn, after that we heard there was no deal, and finally we heard that David Poile wanted not Ryan Parent but a winger from the Flyers.

Anyway, after all that, lets recap what we know and what we don't as we enter the final hours leading up until the trade deadline (2PM Central time tomorrow). Follow after the jump if you dare.

What we know

• The Predators traded a 2nd round pick for depth defenseman Denis Grebeshkov, formerly of Edmonton [OtF]
  
• Ryan Jones was placed on waivers, a strange move by all accounts [Predators Insider]
• David Poile wants scoring or penalty kill help at the forward position [Predators Insider]
  
• Nashville has reportedly turned down three deals for Hamhuis [CSN Philly]
• The Predators are buyers and don't want draft picks for Hammer. The man himself:

``In terms of what I’m hea­ring from coaches and mana­ge­ment, they are saying they want to have the best team pos­si­ble and that we’re buyers, not sellers this year. We want to make a run at the pla­yoffs, and if that’s having me in the lineup to make our team bet­ter, that’s what they want to do. If there’s a trade that will make our team bet­ter that I’m part of going the other way, that could hap­pen, too. But they said they don’t want to just get rid of me for draft picks. I think they unders­tand that the team has a good shot at doing something really good this year and you don’t want to pass up on that.’’

What we don't

• Where contract negotiations stand with Dan Hamhuis [ESPN]:

Contract talks with Hamhuis, who can become an unrestricted free agent this summer, have not progressed, his agent, Wade Arnott, told ESPN.com on Monday.

• If he's being traded at all [Predators Insider]

Conclusion

The stars are certainly aligning for David Poile to deal Dan Hamhuis to a contender in return for some power play or scoring help. The acquisition of Grebeshkov and subsequent waiving of the promising Ryan Jones allude to that. If a deal goes down, you can expect it to happen after 11AM tomorrow when Jones passes through waivers (assuming no one picks him up).

While you may see things hinting that Hamhuis won't be traded, I'm of the opinion (at this time) that its all posturing in order to find the right deal. I anticipate Dan being traded before the deadline, and will be fairly surprised if Nashville goes into the stretch with eight NHL defensemen.