The Fan Hub

The Nashville Predators shocked a lot of people around the NHL on Friday when they sent prospect Blake Geoffrion and a second round pick to Montreal in exchange for defenseman Hal Gill. The Preds have been at the forefront of many trade talks over the past few months, but it was always regarding whether or not they’d be shipping out one of their top-pairing defensemen in “Shea Weber”: or “Ryan Suter”: — and the prevailing opinion as of late was that they were too good as presently constructed to mess with a good thing.

However, with this deal, one has to wonder if another, bigger move is coming for Nashville. They’re not just top-heavy on defense with Weber and Suter, they were extremely deep and well-rounded even before acquiring the USS Hal Gill. So while people try to figure out where exactly he fits into the lineup, the talks will intensify about this being a precursor towards dealing one of their other blue liners for some scoring help up front. Philadelphia would seem to be an ideal trading partner given their wealth of skilled young forwards and porous defense, plus they have the cap space next year to work out a long term deal for either Weber or Suter, both of whom will be free agents at season’s end (Weber a restricted one, Suter unrestricted and due for a big raise from his present $3.5 million salary).