BY ALIN MATEESCU – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
With puckdrop for the 2012-13 NHL season set for Saturday, it is now time to examine each team’s roster as they head into a shortened 48 game season. Here is my look at the Nashville Predators and the possible questions facing their roster, their cap space, their unrestricted free agents and their restricted free agents. Salary cap and cap space provided by capgeek.com.
Salary Cap: $54,711,310 (23)
Cap Space: $15,488,690
Players Signed: 22
UFA: none
RFA: none
Matching the offer sheet Shea Weber signed with the Philadelphia in the summer was a must after Nashville lost defenceman Ryan Suter to the Minnesota Wild via unrestricted free agency.
It would have been bad publicity and a disaster on the ice for the Predators. The Predators will look to trade deadline pickup Hal Gill and summer free agent signing Scott
Hannan to help the club deal with the loss of Suter — at least on the defensive side. Ryan Ellis will be expected to play more in the NHL and produce more offence.
Getting reinforcements won’t be easy for the Predators. While they do have $15,488,690 in cap space, they are a budget-cautious team who may play it safe this season after going for it at least season’s trade deadline and not having to show anything for it.
Alin Mateescu is a full-time Front-end Web Developer with a passion for Online Marketing, Digital Media, and Web Development. Web Strategist. Sports junkie. Creator of iTalkHockey blog network. Managing Editor at RumorMeThis.com and RumorMeThat.com. Find out more about me at about.me/alinmat
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