The Nashville Predators are 9-1-0 in their last 10.

They have 64 points.

They are third in the Central Division, arguably the best division in the league at the moment (who would have thunk it) and only three points out first place in the entire NHL.

Impressive.

They have something like $14.4 million dollars in cap space.

Even more impressive.

They are also being held hostage by Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.

Weber’s words lead a reasonable person to believe he has no interest in signing anytime soon. Ryan Suter dropped the little bomb today that he won’t negotiate a contract before the trade deadline.

Both of them are using the “we want to see if the organization is committed to winning” line as the reason they have not signed.

Whatever. They want money, lots of it, Nashville’s financial situation is not stable and both want to play in a bigger and more secure market. Winning is part of that equation as well but the rest of it is not the “politically correct” thing to say. I doubt any of them would be honest enough to state, “we want a shit load of money from a big market team that has stable ownership and we just don’t see that in Nashville, no offense of course.”

So, what becomes of them? That is the subject of this article. Continue reading →