Nashville Predators

Predators players who qualify as veterans for purposes of preseason games

By Jim Diamond

Tuesday night marks the first of six preseason games for the Nashville Predators. Six is the minimum number of games a team is allowed to play, and the Predators are in the somewhat unique situation of playing two games on the same day when they face the Florida Panthers at Bridgestone Arena this Saturday in hockey’s version of a day/night doubleheader.

“We’re going to use a lot of players to get through the exhibition games and continue to evaluate here,” Predators head coach Peter Laviolette said Sunday. “A lot of young players are going to get opportunities in the first couple of games. We’ve got not the whole organization, but practically the whole organization playing on the 27th. We’ll be evaluating for quite a while here.”

Many veteran players like to play in as many preseason games as they can since there is a difference between being in shape and being in game shape. Laviolette said that he has had some conversations with his players on this subject.

“They are going to get in three or four of those games,” he said. “There may be the odd player that gets all five games. As camp moves on and we continue to look at what we need to look at from a personnel standpoint, that might ultimately determine an extra game or an extra look.”

It will be a balancing act for Laviolette and the management staff of the Predators as they prepare the rosters for the preseason games. To a large degree, they are familiar with what a lot of the veterans can do, but they will want to see some of the younger players in game situations as well. Additionally, as they experiment with line combinations and defensive pairings, seeing them in games gives them a much better idea of how they will function together as opposed to just seeing them in practice.

As the team makes its way to Tampa to face the Lightning Tuesday night, here is a primer on the roster regulations that are in place for teams during the preseason.

Article 15.4 of the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NHL Players’ Association dictates the minimum number of veterans who will dress for each preseason game.

(c) A Club shall be permitted to dress a minimum of eight (8) veterans for any Exhibition Game. For purposes of this Section 15.4(c), a veteran shall constitute either:

(1) a forward or defenseman who played in thirty (30) NHL Games during the previous season,

(2) a goaltender who either dressed in fifty (50) or more NHL Games or played in thirty (30) or more NHL Games in the previous season,

(3) a first round draft choice from the most recent year’s Entry Draft, or

(4) any Player who has played one-hundred (100) or more career NHL Games.

There are 55 players currently on the training camp roster. Here is the breakdown of which players fit into the definition of veteran for the purposes of the preseason games. Some fit into multiple categories, but they are listed just once.

Category 1 – A forward or defenseman who played in 30 NHL Games during the previous season

Forwards (13)

Gabriel Bourque

Rich Clune

Matt Cullen

Mike Fisher – Injured

Paul Gaustad

Olli Jokinen

James Neal

Eric Nystrom

Mike Ribeiro

Derek Roy

Craig Smith

Viktor Stalberg

Colin Wilson

Defensemen (7)

Victor Bartley

Mattias Ekholm

Ryan Ellis – Not in camp due to lack of a contract

Seth Jones

Roman Josi

Anton Volchenkov

Shea Weber

Category 2 – A goaltender who either dressed in 50 or more NHL Games or played in 30 or more NHL Games in the previous season

Carter Hutton

Category 3 – A first round draft choice from the most recent year’s Entry Draft

Kevin Fiala

Category 4 – Any Player who has played 100 or more career NHL Games

Brian Lee

Pekka Rinne

Laviolette happy with Predators first scrimmage

By Jim Diamond

After two long days of on-ice sessions to start training camp, the Nashville Predators held a scrimmage at Centennial Sportsplex Sunday afternoon.

With a new coaching staff in place, some new offensive systems were introduced during the team’s Friday and Saturday practices. A majority of the players who took part in Sunday’s scrimmage were the younger ones in camp, but a few veterans participated as well.

Watching from the sidelines, new head coach Peter Laviolette liked that he saw some of the things they have been working on the last couple of days.

“I did see some of it out on the ice, which was good,” he said. “I thought there were some good things in the neutral zone, some good things in the offensive zone. Guys played hard. They were competitive, they were physical, so it was a good way to evaluate the group.”

When he hired Laviolette, Predators general manager David Poile cited his penchant for coaching offense. Laviolette’s practices have been high-tempo, and Sunday’s scrimmage was no different. The game was wide open, featuring speed at both ends of the ice and some aggressive hitting as well.

“I think we had a few shifts where we had good cycle rotations going which is something that I think is going to be a trademark of our team,” Eric Nystrom said. “There is still a little timing that is off, but I think we executed a lot of the things that we have been working on. It is still new though, so there are going to be a lot of mistakes, but when we executed, it was pretty successful.”

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During Friday’s practice sessions, a lot of time was focused on cycling the puck down low.

“It’s kind of new, everything,” Filip Forsberg said. “We just started Friday, but obviously there are a couple of things that we tried to get going here in this game and especially in the exhibition games coming up.”

Named the most valuable player of the recently completed rookie tournament held at the Ford Ice Center, Forsberg will get a long look from the coaching and management staffs as training camp progresses. A highly skilled forward, Forsberg’s skill set would seem to fit well into Laviolette’s system.

One of the messages from the coaching staff to the players has been to look for open spaces in order to give them some room to use their creativity.

“When we are in the offensive zone, there is so much pressure congested on one side where the battle is, (we are) trying to use the other side of the ice as much as possible,” Rich Clune said. “Our line did that well today and a lot of lines did that well today, using the back of the net and bringing it out the weak side.”

The team’s six-game preseason schedule begins Tuesday night in Tampa. The Predators play their first of four home preseason games Thursday night against the Lightning.

A faster Rich Clune still plays with an edge while keeping an eye out for his teammates

By Jim Diamond

It wasn’t that long ago that a player looking to make an impression on the coaching staff in training camp would look to do so by challenging anyone and everyone they could to drop the gloves and fight. It didn’t matter if it was practice, a scrimmage, or a preseason game, that was a way for a player looking for a roster spot to get noticed. Fights in practices and scrimmages are a rarity these days.

Hockey has evolved over the years, and the days of the one-dimensional enforcer-type player are all but over. In order to make it and stay in the NHL, an element of toughness is still a bonus, but a guy needs to be able to contribute with his gloves on in order to earn one of the 23 coveted spots on the big club’s roster.

Sunday afternoon, 40 of the players in Nashville’s camp participated in a scrimmage game at Centennial Sportsplex. Many of those who dressed for the game were the younger ones, with a few veterans in there as well.

Entering his third season in Nashville, Rich Clune was one of the veterans to participate in the scrimmage. The pace of the game was rather quick, and Clune was noticeably faster than in previous seasons, leading the rush on several occasions.

“I am a little bit lighter than the couple of years past and I worked with a skating guy over the summer, so my legs feel good,” Clune said. “When you get out there battling for pucks and hitting, it is a totally different conditioning system out there.”

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Clune still plays the game with a hard edge and knows that one of his responsibilities is to take care of his teammates.

During the second period, there was a mash up of players in the corner and bodies were flying. As the players separated, Clune and defenseman Jonathan Diaby were exchanging a few words along with a cross-check or two as well.

“I had to kind of bite my lip,” Clune said. “I don’t want to fight in an intrasquad game, and nobody else does too. I just thought he maybe hit my little centerman there, my little buddy there from behind.”

The tale of the tape was not in Clune’s favor. Listed at 5’10” and 207 pounds, Clune was giving up seven inches and likely 20 or more pounds to the young blueliner.

Clune and Diaby did not fight, but Clune said that when he is looking out for a teammate, the size of the opponent doesn’t matter.

“You know me, when I get out there in a game, the adrenaline takes over and I’m a little bit delusional about how tall I am,” he said after the game. “I’ll go say hi to him now. It’s all good.”

Matt Cullen gets a young linemate in Friday’s first practice

By Jim Diamond

Matt Cullen played his first NHL game October 28, 1997.

Kevin Fiala was all of 15 months old at the time.

Friday marked the first on-ice sessions of training camp for the Nashville Predators. With the large number of players here for the start of camp, the team has been split into three different groupings for the first couple of days of practices.

For some, it was their first experience in an NHL camp while others have been at it for close to 20 years.

The first group to hit the ice was the blue group. Among the forwards skating in that collective were Cullen and Fiala, and the coaching staff had them skating on a line together for nearly the entirety of that first practice session.

After they came off of the ice, Cullen was asked how it felt skating on a line with someone who was born in 1996.

“I was waiting for that question,” he said with a laugh. “It’s funny because this is my 17th training camp, and I remember my first one like it was yesterday. I can relate to where these guys are at.”

One should not look too deeply into line combinations and defensive pairings on the first day of practice, but it’s likely that new Predators head coach Peter Laviolette went with someone he knew and felt comfortable with to mentor Fiala, the team’s first round draft pick from June’s Entry Draft, as he was put through the paces of his first training camp practice. Laviolette coached Cullen with the Carolina Hurricanes, where the pair won the Stanley Cup in 2006.

Cullen’s first camp in Anaheim was an eye-opener for him, especially when he was on the ice with a future Hall of Famer.

Kevin Fiala (Jim Diamond/Rinkside Report)

Kevin Fiala (Jim Diamond/Rinkside Report)

“Seeing guys like Teemu Selanne skating on the ice with me and for these guys to get out with Shea Weber, it’s your realization of a dream that you are finally there,” Cullen said. “You’ve been dreaming about playing in the NHL your whole life and to get on the ice the first time, it doesn’t matter if it’s just practice the first day of training camp, it’s hard to believe. You can see it in these kids, you can see the big eyes and the excitement. It’s pretty cool.”

But do those big eyes ever shrink back down to normal size when you are playing alongside a player of Selanne’s caliber?

“Eventually you kind of settle in, but still you find yourself at times thinking, ‘Holy cow, I’m playing on a line with Teemu Selanne right now. This is pretty cool,’” Cullen said.

It’s rare for a player to make an NHL roster in his first training camp, but once the awe factor dies down, the rookies are trying to do exactly the same thing as the veterans.

“You are a little intimidated at first, but at the same time, you know that you are going to have to be better than one of them if you want to get a roster spot,” Viktor Stalberg said. “Maybe the first day you are impressed, but then you just go out there and play your hardest. You’ve got to get the coaches to know you. You can’t be too friendly with guys just because they have been in the league for very long.”

NHL teams can carry a maximum of 23 players on their active rosters. Over the course of the couple of weeks, it will be interesting to watch which young guys make their case for those jobs.

No contract means no Ryan Ellis in training camp

By Jim Diamond

Thursday marked the start of training camp for the 2014-15 version of the Nashville Predators. The players went through their medical exams and a series of meetings before adjourning for the afternoon. One player who was noticeably absent from today’s proceedings was defenseman Ryan Ellis.

Ellis, a restricted free agent, has not yet come to terms on a new contract with the team. It is important to note that since he is not under contract, he is not deemed a holdout.

Reached for comment Thursday afternoon, Ellis’ agent Paul Krepelka said via email, “Nothing to report regarding any progress made toward a deal.”

Ellis is coming off of his three-year, entry-level deal that, per Cap Geek, paid him an average annual value of just over $1.4 million. In 80 games played last season, Ellis scored six goals and added 21 assists while averaging 16:04 of ice time per game. Two of Ellis’ goals were game-winners.

“We are in a contract negotiation with Ryan, and our goal remains to sign Ryan. The sooner we can do so, the better for both the team and for Ryan,” said Predators general manager David Poile, via email, late Thursday afternoon.

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Friday is the start of on-ice practice sessions for the Predators. Under the guidance of new head coach Peter Laviolette, the players will take to the ice at Centennial Sportsplex. A new coach means new systems, so a player not in attendance runs the risk of falling behind on the learning curve. One thing working in Ellis’ favor in that respect is the fact that Phil Housley remained on the coaching staff following Barry Trotz’s departure. Housley ran the defense and power play units last season.

“My job is to make sure that this team is ready to go and the players in camp here are ready to play,” Laviolette said Thursday afternoon when asked specifically about Ellis. “When it comes to contracts, that goes upstairs, and you’d probably be best to talk to David about all that. Right now, we are focused on these guys and tomorrow should be fun.”

In another possible wrinkle to the situation, the Predators announced Thursday that they have added defenseman Brian Lee to the training camp roster on a tryout agreement. Lee has more than 200 games of NHL experience split between the Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning. He did not play at all last season due to a knee injury. The first round (9th overall) pick of the Senators in 2005 will look to challenge for a spot on the Nashville roster.

The Predators play their first of six preseason games Tuesday in Tampa against the Lightning.

Photo set from Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lighting rookie game
Photos taken at the rookie game played between the Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday, September 13, 2014 at the Ford Ice Center in Antioch, Tennessee.

Photos taken at the rookie game played between the Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning Saturday, September 13, 2014 at the Ford Ice Center in Antioch, Tennessee. (Jim Diamond/Rinkside Report)

 

Giving a player a second chance not a first for Poile

By Jim Diamond

Despite his reputation as being conservative and one of the NHL’s old guard, Nashville Predators general manager David Poile has rolled the dice on more than one occasion on players who carried some degree of baggage with them into Nashville.

Poile should be commended for giving players another chance when many of his peers would not do the same.

In the early years of the Nashville franchise, Poile traded away Cliff Ronning, then the team’s only true star, leading scorer, and fan favorite, in exchange for Jere Karalahti. Prior to the trade, Karalahti was featured in a piece in Sports Illustrated that detailed his bout with addictions that included heroin and LSD. In the end, Karalahti could not overcome his substance abuse issues while in Nashville, and he was eventually suspended and allowed to become a free agent after playing just 15 games with the Predators.

To Poile’s credit, that situation did not dissuade him from bringing in other players who also had substance abuse issues in their past as evidenced by the acquisitions of Brian McGrattan and Rich Clune.

The Predators claimed McGrattan off of waivers in October of 2011 and Clune, also off waivers, just before the start of the lockout-shortened 2013-14 season in January 2013. Since being claimed by the Predators, both McGrattan, now with the Calgary Flames, and Clune have stuck in the NHL and earned new contracts while also speaking openly of their battles with substance abuse away from the ice.

Tuesday’s signing of Mike Ribeiro to a one-year, $1.05 million dollar deal is the latest chapter in Poile’s book of second chances.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Arizona Coyotes general manager Don Maloney made headlines with his comments to the Arizona Republic following the team’s announcement that they were buying out the three remaining years on his contract. “Mike had some real behavior issues last year with us I felt we could not tolerate going forward,” Maloney told the newspaper.

Those are pretty harsh words, and even if true, they are not something often heard from an NHL general manager.

Poile said Tuesday that the Predators did their due diligence on Ribeiro, consulting many who knew him. But Poile also said that he spent time with Ribeiro and his wife before making the offer to join the Predators.

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Many have said that the Ribeiro contract is low risk at just one year and relatively little money at just north of a million dollars. While that may be true in theory, there is a decent amount of risk involved in bringing in a player who had problems in his previous location. Players who miss meetings, flights, and have shouting matches with their coach – all things that reportedly happened with Ribeiro in Phoenix – have the potential to tear apart a locker room.

Ribeiro has all the incentive in the world to make things work in Nashville; not so much on the ice but more off of it. He revealed that many of his issues in Phoenix stemmed from marital difficulties that caused a separation from his wife and children for a time. The family has been reunited now, and the family was in Nashville checking things out to see if it would be a good fit for them. Things going right at home will go a long way toward getting them going in the right direction on the ice.

Poile said that this would be Ribeiro’s last chance. At 34 years old and with the reputation at his last stop in Phoenix, that isn’t hyperbole on Poile’s part. Should problems present themselves in Nashville, it will likely be Ribeiro’s last NHL stop. Given that it took him two weeks to land a one-year deal at a salary way below what a player of Ribeiro’s quality should earn on the open market, not too many general managers were calling him with better offers.

Good on Poile for giving him that chance, though.

A year after coming to development camp as an invitee, Joe Pendenza returns as a professional

By Jim Diamond

During a recent trip to a car dealership to purchase a car, the first in his own name, Joe Pendenza was filling out the paperwork when he came to a line that said, “Occupation.” Pendenza thought for a second, smiled, and then put down the words, “Professional Hockey Player.”

“The guy I was buying the car from was like, ‘Really, is that weird?’ and I said, “Yeah, it’s completely weird,’” Pendenza said with a laugh.

It was a moment of pride for Pendenza, who worked hard to get to the point where he could list that as his job.

A year ago, Pendenza accepted an invitation from the Nashville Predators to attend last summer’s development camp. He was heading into his senior season at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Having not been drafted by an NHL team, Pendenza caught the eye of Nashville’s scouting staff.

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As a collegian with eligibility remaining, NCAA rules prohibited Pendenza from accepting anything of value from the Predators, so all expenses like flights, hotel, and meals were on him and his family last year. That investment paid off following the conclusion of the River Hawks’ season when Pendenza inked a contract with the Milwaukee Admirals, Nashville’s top developmental affiliate.

“Last year, I was just kind of an invitee, not so much outside looking in, but I wasn’t technically part of the Predators organization,” Pendenza said. “They just wanted to get to know me some more. This year, I am right inside of it and part of the organization. I couldn’t be happier. Nashville is a great city, and I was out in Milwaukee, and that’s a great city.”

During the season, he kept close tabs on the Predators, watching many games with his NHL GameCenter Live subscription. In addition to the big club, he kept an eye on the Admirals as well as a lot of the teams that other players he met at last year’s camp played for across the hockey world.

When Pendenza signed his contract with Milwaukee, he came home to share the good news, and ask for a ride to the airport too.

“My mom was crying when I came home and told her,” Pendenza said. “I had to find someone to drive me and my mom was crying. I have to thank them a lot – my parents, my uncle Vin – they put in so much for me. I will never be able to repay all the money and time they put in, so I was more thanking them because they were just as much a part of this as I was.”

Pendenza saw action in five games with Milwaukee down the stretch of the season. When that season came to its conclusion, Pendenza went back to school to complete his academic requirements.

“The teachers at Lowell were great about it,” Pendenza said. “They knew my situation and they were completely fine with it. I was able to come back and take my finals.”

After knocking those finals out, Pendenza not only had the title of professional hockey player but college graduate as well.

“I got my degree and walked down the aisle,” he said. “Mom was happy about that also. She wanted me to get it out of the way so I could focus on being a professional hockey player.”

Following development camp, Pendenza will return home to Massachusetts, where he will continue to train to get ready for his first full professional season that kicks off this fall.

Predators prospects take to the ice for testing

By Jim Diamond

For the first on-ice activity of this week’s development camp, the Nashville Predators put their prospects through a skating test on the Bridgestone Arena ice Tuesday morning, and it was anything but a leisurely offseason skate.

One-by-one, the prospects were put through a rigorous test under the watchful eye of strength and conditioning coach David Good. The players skated through a predetermined route. While each skate was in the neighborhood of 25-30 seconds, somewhat shorter than a normal shift in a game, the players were made to do the test six times in a row, and with very little rest time in between.

Following each rep, Good called out the time to an assistant at the bench area who was carefully logging each time. In most cases, the players’ times increased a little with each successive rep. Many of the other players, some already done with their tests while others still waiting their turn, hung around the player benches watching and yelling encouragement to their teammates. And by the end of the sixth repetition with their legs and lungs burning, the players needed all of the help they could get.

The prospects will return to the Bridgestone ice for workouts Wednesday and Friday from 9:00am – 12:15 pm, and the week will culminate with a scrimmage game Saturday afternoon at 3:30. All of these sessions are open to the public.

If you have a minute and don’t hate slideshows, please take a stroll through the images from Tuesday’s testing session in the attached gallery. See something you like, don’t like, photography tips – any feedback either in the comments section or on Twitter would be appreciated.

Sometimes doing nothing is the right thing

By Jim Diamond

As the NHL’s free agency period kicked off at 11:00 CT Tuesday, the signings from across the league came fairly fast and furious with teams announcing signings just about as quickly as one could refresh their Internet browser.

Noticeably absent from the teams announcing signings was the Nashville Predators. And although it sent fans into panic mode all over Twitter today, it really is okay that general manager David Poile did not sign anyone new on free agency’s first day.

Comedian Mike Birbiglia has a recurring bit in which he describes an awkward situation he entered into and recites what he said at the time. He follows it up with, “What I should have said was nothing.”

The Predators doing nothing isn’t necessary a bad thing.

Entering Tuesday, Poile stated his desire to get a number one center. His big problem was that there was exactly one number one center on the market – Colorado’s Paul Stastny. Before the clock struck 11:00, it was almost a foregone conclusion that Stastny was going to sign with the St. Louis Blues and, unsurprisingly, that’s exactly what happened.

This came on the heels of the news that then-Ottawa Senators center Jason Spezza refused to waive his no-trade clause to come to Nashville and join the Predators.

Given the fact that almost exactly one year ago, July 5 to be exact, Poile went on a drunken sailor-esque spending spree on free agency’s first day inking five free agents – four of which were on pretty hefty deals that one could make a pretty good argument that the Predators paid them more than market value to sign – some restraint was in order.

Nashville may regard itself as the “It City,” but it is not to the point where free agents or players with other options are falling over themselves to come here to play, hence the need to overpay to get them to come to Smashville. Two straight seasons of finishing outside of the playoffs isn’t sending the message that this is the place to be for players who want to win a Stanley Cup in the near future, either.

Just after the conclusion of the season, Poile fired Barry Trotz, to that point the only coach the franchise had ever known. Players and their agents are smart enough to know that if the coaching change isn’t enough to turn the team around, the general manager could be next.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done to turn the Predators back into contenders, and while a top centerman will help, it is not the magic bullet many think it is.

Tuesday, the Senators traded Spezza to the Dallas Stars, one of the teams not on his no-trade list. Spezza is a year away from unrestricted free agency. Barring the signing of an extension with Dallas in the next 365 days, he will hit the free agent market a year from now. The Stars are a team on the upswing with a good deal of offensive talent already on the roster. A good season with the Stars and the likelihood of putting up strong offensive numbers are all resume builders for Spezza as he potentially heads into next year’s silly season looking to get paid.

Yes, the Predators should be better next year. As they like to point out, they were just three points out of eighth place last season and a healthy Pekka Rinne may have made up that difference between finishing tenth and in a playoff spot.

And yes, anything can happen once a team makes the playoffs, but were and are the Predators good enough to run the Western Conference gauntlet that includes teams like Chicago, St. Louis, Anaheim, San Jose, Los Angeles, et. al.? No, not right now they aren’t, and it will take more than a center to make that happen.

Free agency is less than 24 hours old, and there are still options on the market. Mikhail Grabovski is out there, but he was available last year when the Toronto Maple Leafs put him on waivers for the purpose of buying out his contract and the Predators elected not to claim him. He is reportedly asking for a five-year contract at around $5 million per. If he will take that to play with the Predators, offering it wouldn’t be a bad idea. That is assuming Poile and company are able to overlook the fact that he is Belarusian, and well, you all know what happened the last time they traveled down that road.

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The Flyers would love to unload Vincent Lecavalier and his ridiculous contract on someone. He could be had in trade for a song, but is 34 and under contract for four more seasons, and ages 34-38 are rarely highly productive years for players.

In reality, the Predators need to look within. Poile is high on young players like Filip Forsberg and Calle Jarnkrok. Now may be the time to take the reins off of these kids and see what they can do with some ice time on the team’s top two lines. Yes, there will be some growing pains along the way, but in order for these players to gain some experience, they need to play.

Since hiring Peter Laviolette as the team’s new coach, the Predators have touted the fact that he plays an uptempo brand of hockey. Let the young players have a chance to grow in this system and get the team back into being perennial playoff contenders. It will be amazing to watch how attractive a city and team Nashville will become when that happens.