(Photo Credit:  Scott Paulus)

That’s a lot of beard conditioner.

The Preds blogs have the coverage pretty well…um….covered, so I don’t really have anything all that new to add to the mix.

But after reading the highlights from the media conference call, the two sides went back to the optimistic tone that had preceded the hearing.  It’s not that I don’t believe them….but hell, what else are they going to say?  Poile is optimistic that they’ll be able to lock Shea up with a long term deal.  Shea loves playing in Nashville.  It’s just a business, it’s not personal.  Committed to winning.

I would have been surprised if that conference call had gone anywhere other than that line of comments.

But at the end of the day, he’s a Predator.  He’s the fifth highest paid defenseman this year in the league, a hair behind Pronger, and a few hairs above the Brian Campbell Albatross (that sounds like a good band name, incidentally….maybe they can open up for Brian Jonestown Massacre….or for Chili Sabotage).  He also has the highest cap hit among defenseman for this year, and is tied for the 7th largest cap hit in the league.

And they can start working on that extension right now.   Get to work.

Today was arbitration day for the Predators and Shea Weber.  Josh Cooper from the Tennessean has been an all-star with the twitter updates, and the usual suspects in the Predator blogworld have done a great job covering the event as well.

In short…

Predators offered $4.75 million.
Weber camp requested $8.5 million.

I imagine that whatever was being discussed prior to the hearing was somewhere in the middle… but those were the numbers that they filed with the arbiter.

The Predators can still work out a deal with the Weber camp before the arbiter rules, or the arbiter will work out a number likely somewhere in between.

Just for kicks….let’s take a look at what other folks are set to make this year.

Preds offer:  $4.75 million
Keith Yandle (PHO): $4.75
Dan Hamhuis (Van): $5 million  (Yes that’s right.  The Preds arbitration offer was less than what Dan Hamhuis is scheduled to make this year.)
37-year old Sergei Gonchar (OTT):  $5.5 million
Dion Phaneuf (TOR):  $6.5 million
Zdeno Chara (BOS): $8.5 million
Weber request: $8.5 million
Christian Ehrhoff (BUF): Top paid D-man, $10 million

We may never know what the sticking point was in the negotiations leading up to the hearing, but hopefully nothing that came out in the hearing will be taken so personally that there may be a divorce on the horizon.  Is that wishful thinking?  Maybe.

Good evening.  Thank you for joining us tonight.

Four score and seven months ago (ballpark figure), our bloggers brought forth, upon this Internet, a new idea, conceived in photos, and dedicated to the proposition that our readers were pretty funny and could make funny captions to those photos.

Yes, our world famous caption contests.  (Famous in our world at least).  They have been a staple of the old blog and the new blog, and helped us pass the time during slow news weeks.  And we have offered prizes that you just can’t win anywhere else.  Media room cookies.  Delicious.  Especially when I’m able to yoink them from under the heat lamp, so that the chocolate is just a littly gooey, and the cookies kind of melt in your  mouth when you eat them….man, that’s the stuff.

The folks from the Admirals have taken notice.  And just a few short hours ago, they have declared war on Admirals Roundtable.

(Disclaimer:  They haven’t declared war….they love us…..but I’m taking this opportunity to be overdramatic…. so follow me on this here.  I repeat — this is supposed to be over-the-top, and in no way suggesting that we are in some kind of a feud with the team.  Have I made this disclaimer clear enough?  If so, great.  You may proceed.)

Just 2 days after we released our latest caption contest, the Admirals have started their own caption contest, promoting it on Facebook, Twitter, and more.  And in just 3 short hours, they’ve got 62 comments already on their Facebook page.  They have the firepower and reach, that a simple working class blog like mine just doesn’t have.

The timing is very suspect.

Yet, what are they offering as prizes?  I have seen it advertised as “something you will treasure forever.”  and “something amazing”.  They’re out of autographed James Sixsmith nameplates, so really, what could it be?  Right?  Right.

They are trying to silence our piece of the caption contest pie.  Or cookie, if you will.

So what can YOU do help our cause?

Go to that caption contest on the Admirals Facebook page and/or twitter account, and tell them that you support your working class blog, Admiralsroundtable.com, and that while you acknowledge their contest and interest in passing the time duriing the dog days of summer, you refuse to participate on principle.

Or, you can take their picture, and leave a BETTER caption on this blog here.  Show the Admirals that it’s not about quantity, it’s about QUALITY.

(photo credit:  Scott Paulus)

Or you can do nothing, and that’s fine too.

Ok.  /silliness.

Back to regular content tomorrow….hopefully with some good news about Shea Weber’s contract.

To help pass the time, here’s another caption contest.

We Scott Paulus provides the picture, you provide the funny.  And if your funny is funnier than everyone else’s funny, you’ll win media room cookies at a game this season.

For example:  Jamie Koharski conducts the Ad-Tones in a performance of “Coney Island Baby”

Good luck!

(Photo credit:  Scott Paulus)

As he was exiting the ice at the Bradley Center after Game 7 against the Aeros, it looked like he was trying to soak it all in.

Still, there was hope that he’d stick around with the Ads/Preds for another year.

Today, the Marlies announced that they’ve signed Wilson to a contract.  (It was the GM of the Marlies making the announcement….not Brian Burke.)

Kelsey has suited up in more games as an Admiral than any other player since the team joined the AHL in 2001.  His demeanor on and off the ice will be missed, for sure.

Leave a comment with your favorite Kelsey moment from over the years, if you have one.

So….I’ve got nothing of interest to report at the moment.  But I thought I’d share some stories of interest from some other sources.

Aaron Sims talks about what forwards we may have in Milwaukee this season, and it’s tough not to get excited by the list.

Section 303 did some interviews with some of those players that may get some playing time in Milwaukee this season.  Check out what they had to say.

Victor Bartley

Mike Latta

Ryan Ellis

Taylor Beck

A profile-piece on Ryan Ellis from nhl.com.  Is that a GI Joe reference at the end of it?

That’ll do for today.

Oh yeah.  And Sutty says “Hi”.

News from Ads camp!

Scott Ford has agreed on a contract for another season, and forward Chris Cahill will be back this season as well.

I give thumbs up to both of these.  Fordo will provide some veteran leadership on a blue line that will probably look a lot different than it did last year.  He’s not getting any faster, and he has been a part of some ho-hum fights lately….but his size and leadership will be assets this year.  He has to be the front-runner to wear the “C” at this point.

The general consensus from readers here was that they liked Cahill’s energy from the two games that they saw him in with the Admirals last season.  We’ll see if he’s ready to take the next step.

Did you know…

…that the Predators and Admirals have the third longest active affiliation streak in the AHL?

The Admirals are the only AAA affiliate the Predators have ever known, going back to their inaugural season in 1998.  This puts them only behind the Hartford Wolfpack/Connecticut Whale – New York Rangers relationship (since 1997), and the Providence Bruins – Boston Bruins relationship (since 1992).

Obviously, there are lots of great things about a long relationship like that.  Milwaukee has a lot to offer the Preds, or any NHL affiliate.

“We have built a very strong and successful relationship with Nashville that has been mutually beneficial,” Admirals Team President Jon Greenberg says.  “Our ownership group and front office staff have worked hard to make this a destination for potential players with not only a first-class facility in the Bradley Center but also a Major League city to live and work.”

But how does the Milwaukee – Nashville relationship differ from those other two long-standing duos?

Travel.

It takes a little less than 2 and a half hours to drive from Hartford to NYC.

It takes an hour to drive from Providence to Boston.

It’s about a 9 and a half hour drive from Milwaukee to Nashville.  It’s a two hour direct flight if you can get it.

From a roster management standpoint, there are obvious benefits to proximity: time and money.

The reason I bring all of this up, as reader BrianTheAdsFan had previously pointed out, there are rumors out there that the Predators want to move their affiliates closer to home.

The Predators had their annual Skate Of The Union address recently.  It’s a nice public relations thing the team does every summer where fans can get some face-time with management and coaches.  They talk about all parts of the franchise…business, player development, drafting, the ownership group, and there’s a Q&A session at the end.  It gives Nashville fans a reason to be excited about hockey in July.

Here’s where the story deviates a bit from on-the-record-fact to off-the-record-conversations-that-would-probably-would-not-hold-up-in court.

In the comments section of a post on ontheforecheck.com , a commenter shared this:

“I was able to catch Jeff Cogen last night.  Can’t let the Pred out of the bag….but expect to see our farm teams within a 3 hour driving distance in the near future. He mentioned 2 cities on the radar with hockey ready arenas that they are going for to get a more regional fan base. Hint…..One metro area just lost their team……”

Jeff Cogen is the Chief Executive Officer and alternate Governor of the Predators.  The commenter?  Hell if I know.  And thus we get to an unfortunate byproduct of the rise of blogs…..there’s a ton of information going back and forth on the superhighway, but it’s not always easy to verify it.

A Nashville – Atlanta relationship.  It’s tough to fault them if they are looking in to it.  Arena?  Check.  Heartbroken hockey fans looking for a new team to follow?  Check.  Just a four hour drive between the two cities?  Check.  Branding opportunities in the region?  Major check.  The Predators are already trying to market Preds hockey to the old Thrashers fan base.  And an affiliation agreement would certainly help that.

The thought of it feels kind of like a punch in the gut to Milwaukee fans.

Still, I can’t help but think that there are a lot more things that would need to happen in advance of this coming anywhere close to fruition.  For one thing, all 30 of the AHL teams are already owned, either by the parent club or locally.  For the Preds to be able to pick and choose an affiliate city in this fashion, they would likely need to purchase an existing AHL franchise, and then relocate that franchise.  True North owned the Manitoba Moose, and with their good fortune in landing the NHL team, they elected to move the Moose out east.  Good for them.

For an organization that some may describe as “frugal”, is this possible for Nashville?  Sure, it’s possible.  Is it likely?  I’m less confident that it’s likely.

The Admirals and Predators have one more year left on their current affiliation deal, so change isn’t exactly imminent.  But I don’t think there’s anything to panic about at the moment.  I think a lot more dominos will need to fall before there’s something to be worried about, and those dominos will be louder than some off-the-cuff comment from a Predators executive to an anonymous reader/commenter on a blog.

“The road to Nashville has gone through Milwaukee since 1998 and we expect that to continue for years to come with hopefully an affiliation extension right around the corner,” Greeny says.

Affiliation changes are not exactly uncommon in this league, and I think our long-standing affiliation bliss with the Predators should be viewed as the exception, and not the norm.  But I find Greeny’s comments very encouraging, and I hope we’ll be writing about an affiliation extension sometime this season.

Will he?  Won’t he?  Will he?  Won’t he?

He will.

The Badgers have announced that Craig Smith, who would have been a junior in Madison this year, has elected to turn pro this season.  There’s a great write-up of the announcement (and an audio interview as well) at ontheforecheck.com.

So now the $64,000 question is does he have a chance to break training camp with the Predators?  Reports are saying that he was one of the best on the ice during the development camp recently, and if he has a knack for the net in training camp, how hard do you think it’ll be for Poile and company to tell him that “The road to Nashville goes through Milwaukee”?

So Roundtable….where do you see him playing next year?  Anybody watch him regularly on Badger broadcasts this past season?

Another day, another Nashville Predator leaves the Music City for another organization.  Defenseman Shane O’Brien has bolted for Colorado, signing a one year, $1.1 million contract.

In the grand scheme of things, this decision isn’t exactly a significant one.  O’Brien is a 4th-to-7th defenseman in the NHL and those players are somewhat interchangeable, especially in an organization like Nashville that is so deep on the blueline.

However, how this becomes a factor is in the Predators’ organizational depth.  The vacated roster spots formerly occupied by players such as Ward, Franson, Sullivan,  Goc and O’Brien will have to be filled.  Some replacements like Niclas Bergfors and others have been added, but overall this seems like a perplexing trend for an organization that is coming off a breakout year.

I know better than to doubt Nashville G.M. David Poile and the Predators’ grand game plan, which likely has cornerstone defenseman Shea Weber under a long term contract as its centerpiece, but I think something needs to be said about what kind of AHL team the Nashville organization will be placing on the ice in Milwaukee next season.

So far Nashville is looking at a minimum of three-to-five bodies that it is going to need to replace on a permanent basis from within.  Again no surprise for the Predators.

However, does that mean that players like Blake Geoffrion, Chris Mueller, Teemu Laakso and Gabriel Bourque might not be back to Milwaukee by default?  Are these potential Admirals ready for the next stage of their careers?  Who steps into Milwaukee next year to fill their void?

Roundtable, what do you think about the current makeup of the Nashville organization as a whole?