After the recent historic run by the Nashville Predators, winning the Western Conference and coming within two wins of winning the Stanley Cup, Stoney felt that he needed to add someone to cover the Preds and hockey in general for the site. I was at the very first Preds game and have been going ever since. I even took the plunge and became a season ticket holder a few years ago, so I figured why not, let’s give this a shot. I’m really excited to jump on board here at SoBros, so let’s get this thing started.
Obviously, the best time to start covering the Preds and the NHL is as soon as the offseason starts. Fortunately for us, the Preds kept playing until the middle of June, so there is plenty happening around the league right now. Over the next few weeks, we have the Expansion Draft (which we’ll dig into more here in a bit), the NHL Draft, the new Adidas sweaters being released for the whole league, the NHL Awards show, and Development Camps and Training Camps. Hockey never sleeps.
The big news this morning is the lists of protected players for each team were revealed for the upcoming Expansion Draft. The Vegas Golden Knights will select their team from the exposed players over the next few days and announce their roster on Wednesday, June 21st. Now, because nothing like this is easy, Vegas GM George McPhee will spend the next few days fielding calls from every other GM in the league, begging him not to take Player X and to take Player Y in exchange for a couple draft picks or additional players instead. Everyone confused yet? Good, me too.
The Predators only had one surprise on their protected list. Over the last few days, the debate has been whether they would protect Calle Jarnkrok or James Neal. Personally, I would have protected Neal over Jarnkrok, but I’m not David Poile. Neal is a thirty goal scorer and the perfect heal the Preds need. Every goal Neal scores seems to have that emphatic FU to the opposition, like when he bounced one off Corey Perry’s head to win Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals in OT. It was GLORIOUS. You don’t find that type of skill everywhere. However, the Preds’ GM opted to keep Jarnkrok and expose Neal. Like I said though, there’s a ton going on behind the scenes so let’s not panic yet. I have faith in Poile to get something done and keep the team rolling right along so Nashville can head into next season, finish what they started this year, and win the whole damn thing.
