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| Shea Weber is going to pair up with guys like Kevin Klein a lot more now. (Getty Images) |
The Nashville Predators faced the biggest decision in franchise history after the Philadelphia Flyers inked Shea Weber to an offer sheet last week. They had to pony up some massive money over the next 14 years to remain a viable franchise or slump into the anonymous world of mediocrity, hockey purgatory.
Despite the awfully large price tag they elected for option No. 1, keeping their captain and the face of their franchise.
Frankly it was a move that they absolutely had to make; it's not much of an exaggeration to say the future of the franchise hung in the balance for the decision to be made. If Weber left the Preds would have lost two of their three best players -- both top-pairing and Norris Trophy-candidate defensemen -- in the matter of weeks. You don't overcome that easily at all. The positive momentum that been growing in the city for hockey would have been wiped out.
They don't have to worry about that, not now. They have Weber signed for the next 14 years and can continue to forge on in their attempts to get past the second round of the Western Conference playoffs and hopefully win the Stanley Cup.
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One of the interesting parts about it is that one of Weber's agents said in the last week that Weber wasn't interested in going through another rebuilding process. I continue to look at the Predators and wonder where that idea that is widely believed is coming from with Weber back in the fold.
I don't want to discount the loss of Ryan Suter to Nashville at all, it will certainly be something they feel, but that's pretty much it. They are saying goodbye to Alexander Radulov, Andrei Kostitsyn and Jordin Tootoo but with all due respect to those guys, they shouldn't be horribly big losses. Radulov would garner a little more consideration in the "big losses" department if the Predators hadn't just had a successful season almost entirely without Radulov. They can obviously play without him, they showed that.
So I'm still struggling to see how people can look at the Predators and see a team that goes from being a very good club and a borderline contender in the West last season to going totally in the toilet now and for the foreseeable future. The Preds still have Weber, a Vezina-quality goalie in Pekka Rinne and the rest of their group of rather anonymous faces like Martin Erat, David Legwand, Mike Fisher and Colin Wilson.
Over the next five years the Predators are going to be strapped for cash paying this big money to Weber but what else is new? This team for years has been operating on a shoe-string budget and GM David Poile has done just fine I'd say. The Preds were ready to move up in the salary-cap world but instead they will just have to remain by the floor. If you think that's going to stop them from being a competitive team I suggest you check out Poile's track record.
To be clear, I again want to point out that the Preds are almost assuredly going to take a step back next season. Replacing Suter with Kevin Klein is not swapping apples for apples by any stretch. But there should be no reason the Preds won't challenge for the playoffs in the meantime as they try to slowly build the pieces up around Weber and Rinne again.
The Predators still have a little roster work to do. They need another defenseman to fill out the corps and could just go from within to fill the void since the market that was already thin doesn't have much left to talk about. Whether they bring up an AHL (or junior) player or sign a free agent it should put the Preds over the cap floor and they're good to go.
Weber would not have signed an offer sheet with 14 years with another team if he weren't at least OK with the idea of playing 14 more years in Nashville. He knew full well that was an option when he agreed to the offer from Philadelphia. It might not have been his first choice but it doesn't mean it was his last either. Getting a big contract before the CBA is rewritten was as big a factor as anything, I would guess.
As for the Predators, well even they mentioned in their press release that they decided to match the offer sheet that this is to prove that they wouldn't be pushed around by the big boys in hockey. It also makes it clear that they are serious about winning and I don't think that in the end they fell too far off that goal this summer. But time should tell.
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