Quote:
Originally Posted by Tinordi
Nashville's the early winner. Their roster looks alot better today than yesterday.
Columbus added a big gun but lost a big gun with no real replacement. 1 step forward 1 step back while Nashville just flat out got better.
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Yes, I was pretty much going to say this. Columbus addressed a weakness by acquiring the other top pairing d-man they need long term, but they lost a #1 center who are also hard to find. They essentially just created a new hole to fill, but I'm betting they tank hard the rest of the year for Matthews.
Nashville could afford to lose Jones since they already had Weber and Josi, but didn't have a true top line center. Relying on Mike Ribeiro will only get you so far. Mike Fisher is a better 3rd line guy than 2nd line guy at this point in his career.
With the Preds good track record of picking up and fixing reclamation projects, even if there are attitude issues, Johansen is probably not that much of a risk in their eyes.
Basically the Predators might have just made the move that pushes them over the top.