{"id":50800,"date":"2019-07-02T18:34:47","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T22:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=50800"},"modified":"2019-07-02T18:34:47","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T22:34:47","slug":"matt-duchene-deal-justifies-nashville-predators-gamble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2019\/07\/02\/matt-duchene-deal-justifies-nashville-predators-gamble\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Duchene Deal Justifies Nashville Predators Gamble"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nashville Predators<\/a> got the player they\u2019ve always coveted in Matt Duchene<\/a>.<\/strong> General manager David <\/span>Poile<\/span> executed a game plan of clearing out salary cap space by trading P.K.\u00a0Subban\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/span>to the New Jersey Devils.<\/a> Nashville now has another scorer to compliment the “<\/span>JoFA”<\/span> line of Ryan Johansen<\/a>, Filip Forsberg<\/a> <\/strong>and Viktor Arvidsson<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Predators\u00a0currently sit as a top contender for a Central Division and Western Conference title. It was a big risk to clear out cap space before knowing if Duchene was going to sign with the club. Poile\u2019s big gamble could have come up snake eyes if Duchene went to the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> or another club.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Predators Had to Go All-In for Matt Duchene<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

The Predators have been a contender ever since acquiring <\/span>Subban<\/span> in 2016. Nashville\u2019s big gamble netted them a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2016-17 and a President\u2019s Trophy in 2017-18. Things were going great until they lost to the Winnipeg Jets<\/a> in the second round of the playoffs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some thought it was a 50-50 series that could go either way. However, the Predators lost in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to the Dallas Stars<\/a>. The goaltending of <\/span>Pekka Rinne\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>helped the team stay in the mix in that series, but the lack of scoring ultimately cost the club.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Roman Josi<\/a><\/strong> led the team in points, but Rocco Grimaldi<\/a> <\/strong>was the Predators leading goal-scorer with three. The ballyhooed <\/span>JoFA<\/span> line only got two goals in the playoffs and the team got little scoring elsewhere.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nashville\u2019s run to the final was accentuated by timely goals from a multitude of sources. Trade deadline acquisitions such as Brian Boyle<\/a><\/strong> and Wayne Simmonds<\/a> <\/strong>didn\u2019t really add much in the way of goals.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rolling the Dice<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Poile<\/span> had gone after Duchene a couple of times but lost out on those occasions to the Ottawa Senators<\/a> and the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>. The team got another chance to land the Haliburton, Ontario native in free agency.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Montreal proved to be the main contender with Nashville to land Duchene as his whole family are big <\/span>Habs<\/span> fans. Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin<\/a> has proven to be aggressive this season, including handing out the first offer sheet in six years<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There were some nervous moments, but <\/span>Poile<\/span> finally got his man at seven years and $56 million. It was a move that put the Predators back in the contender conversation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nashville likely had contingency plans if Duchene went elsewhere. However, it would have been a big blow as the Predators would have traded a superstar like <\/span>Subban<\/span> and had nothing to show for it. The main aim was to deal <\/span>Subban<\/span> for offence and Nashville came away with their target, but there were probably a few nervous moments.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What it <\/span>Means<\/span> for the Future<\/span>\u00a0With Matt Duchene<\/span><\/h2>\n

Duchene gives the Predators depth and options up the middle with <\/span>six players that can play the pivot position<\/span><\/a>. Duchene joins Johansen, Kyle Turris<\/a>, Nick Bonino<\/a>, Calle Jarnkrok\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/span>and Colton Sissons\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/span>as forwards that play the <\/span>centre<\/span> position<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Poile<\/span> may deal one of the latter three to add some scoring wingers or get more pieces, but now the Predators have fle<\/span>xibility to mix and match combinations. Nashville\u2019s bottom-six is good at playing <\/span>defence<\/span>, but shouldn\u2019t be expected to score a ton of goals in the post-season when opponents focus on the top line.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The addition of Duchene means Nashville can now spread the wealth around in its scoring. It could be a move that nets the Predators another deep run.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"OTTAWA, ON – FEBRUARY 22: Columbus Blue Jackets Center Matt Duchene (95) prepares for a face-off during first period National Hockey League action between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Ottawa Senators on February 22, 2019, at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, ON, Canada. (Photo by Richard A. Whittaker\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nashville Predators got the player they\u2019ve always coveted in Matt Duchene. General manager David Poile executed a game plan of clearing out salary cap space by trading P.K.\u00a0Subban\u00a0to the New Jersey Devils. Nashville now has another scorer to compliment the “JoFA” line of Ryan Johansen, Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson.\u00a0 The Predators\u00a0currently sit as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":42531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[245,264,766,152,243,662,253,1108],"class_list":["post-50800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predators","tag-david-poile","tag-marc-bergevin","tag-matt-duchene","tag-montreal-canadiens","tag-nashville-predators","tag-nhl-free-agency","tag-p-k-subban","tag-ryan-johansen"],"modified_by":"William Grigsby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}