Nashville Predators News & Notes:
We’ll be formally introducing our new staff members tomorrow morning—it’s been a really busy weekend, as you might have noticed, but On the Forecheck has added some great new talent. The Nashville Predators also added some great new talent in the draft earlier this weekend.
2019 NHL Entry Draft: Grades & Trades for the Nashville Predators | On the Forecheck
Eric Dunay was a rock star for us this weekend, always ready with a quick breakdown of the Preds’ latest move, and familiar with many of the players that went even deep in the later rounds. This overview of the Preds’ picks and trades at the draft includes links to a summary of what each pick brings, or you can browse all the draft coverage here.
Predators NHL Draft Hub | Nashville Predators
There’s also video of interviews with the new kids on the Preds’ website.
Of course, drafting players wasn’t all the Predators did yesterday.
Helewka Dealt to New Jersey | Milwaukee Admirals
I don’t understand this trade. Helewka was a good player for the Admirals, the Preds don’t have an obvious contract crunch, and the return was just future considerations. The only thing that makes sense to me is that it might have been to help offset the Binghamton Devils’ loss of Jérémy Davies in the P.K. Subban trade, but, if so, that makes that trade even worse.
Nashville Predators trade P.K. Subban to the New Jersey Devils for salary cap space | On the Forecheck
Sharing my thoughts about an article I wrote feels kind of silly, so let’s just move on.
Blockbuster at the 2019 NHL Draft: New Jersey Devils Traded a Package for P.K. Subban | All About The Jersey
All About the Jersey is, uh, a little more excited about the trade than we were.
#Smashville – I love you! Thank you to the @PredsNHL team, teammates, fans and community for embracing me over the past three years. Ready for this next chapter… @NJDevils are you ready for the Subbanator? 😈☝🏿👀 pic.twitter.com/rkPkkqRKRT
— P.K. Subban (@PKSubban1) June 22, 2019
Other News & Notes:
NHL salary cap ceiling set at $81.5 million for 2019-20 season | ProHockeyTalk
$81.5M puts some teams in a very bad place and allows others to benefit from them. We’ll have something coming up for you tomorrow about how the final salary cap affects the Preds.
NHL’s cap crunch is being felt more acutely than ever | Sportsnet.ca
Oh boy, is it.
Winners and losers of the 2019 NHL Draft | ProHockeyTalk
A fun quick summary of the weekend’s worth of news.
Trade: Lightning free up cap space by sending Miller to Canucks | ProHockeyTalk
J.T. Miller could actually help the Canucks quite a bit, but the real takeaway here is that Brayden Point is going to get Paid with a capital P.
Canucks acquire J.T. Miller from Lightning for Mazanec, draft picks | Sportsnet.ca
I like how Sportsnet’s take on this is that Miller is fantastic and the Lightning’s cap situation is completely irrelevant. Miller’s fine–decent player, had a less-good 2018-19 but still not bad. He’ll be much better for the Canucks than Marek Mazanec in the press box was, and he should score more than he did for the Lightning. Acting like this was all Jim Benning’s genius, though? Nah.
Speaking of Jim Benning, rumor has it he’s talking about talking to pending free agents again. You’d think he’d have learned.
Hurricanes acquire Marleau, set to buy him out | ProHockeyTalk
The Carolina Hurricanes are leveraging some cap space–I have to feel like Patrick Marleau, much as he says he’ll miss Toronto, is more than happy to return to the San Jose Sharks at the same time.
The Boston Pride are coming together | The Ice Garden
The NWHL is still trying to get together a league for this season–sensibly, they’re not willing to fold for the good of the game without a guarantee that they’ll be replaced–and the Boston Pride have been making a significant start with signings.
And finally…
Ville Heinola,18 years old, told reporters that the player he most likes to pattern his game after is Miro Heiskanen… who is… 19 years old.
Today I finally got Heinola to name an older, grizzled, ancient veteran as someone he admired. His reply?
Victor Hedman. Time is a 👿.
— Murat Ates (@WPGMurat) June 22, 2019
I’m so old, y’all. So old.