The Nashville Predators were involved in an unusual trade today.  Former Milwaukee Admirals defenseman Alexander Sulzer was traded to the Florida Panthers for a conditional seventh round pick.

Predators General Manager David Poile must be clearing roster and cap space, because otherwise this trade makes little sense.

Nashville may not even get anything back in the deal (not even the $1 in the Ray Sheppard trade from a few decades back), because the Predators will  only receive a Panthers seventh-round pick if Sulzer appears on the Florida’s Reserve List during the 2011-12 season.  If not, there is nothing in return, not even some Zamboni gasoline or a used puck bag.

Curious stuff, your thoughts Roundtable?

Ah, the Interwebs…

There is a rumor going around on the HFBoards that Jon Blum has been recalled to the Predators.  Both Boullion and Suter are hurt, so a callup was probably imminent this week at some point.

I don’t like posting about rumors….I’d much rather be able to confirm them and go with that.

But I think it’s likely that the source is probably legit.

The guy spreading the rumor says he is from Blum’s hometown.  Word may have traveled pretty quickly.  Some of Blum’s other CA pals have been poor at keeping secrets in the past, and they have proven to be accurate after they leaked information on the HFBoards.

So we’ll see if there’s a press release tomorrow.

Blum has 8 goals and 26 assists in 54 games for the Admirals this season, and six of those goals were on the power play (including one Sunday evening).  But he has been prone to bad decisions on defense of late, often times being bailed out by his defensive partners and goaltender.

So Roundtable….if this is true, how do you see this playing out for Blummer?  Is he ready or is he going to get smushed?

Mark Dekanich has been returned to the Admirals…but he will not be in uniform for the game tonight in Peoria.

Hey hey!

Just wanted to give a quick plug for the Admirals Celebrity Serve, coming up at Major Goolsby’s on March 7th (it’s just around the corner).  Time is from 6-9pm, with proceeds from the event going to the Admirals Power Play Foundation.

If you’ve never been, it’s a good time and a great cause.

If you’re looking for some more information, you can check out the Admirals Crew website.  Or if you prefer face-to-face interaction for your fact-gathering purposes, may I recommend stopping by the Admirals Crew table outside section 206 at the next game?  I may?  Great!

Photo credit: Scott Paulus

“I rea­lize I’m here for a rea­son, I rea­lize I’m here to get bet­ter, and I’m here to get myself back to the Chet Pic­kard that the Nash­vi­lle Pre­da­tors selec­ted in the first-round, because they took a gam­ble on me pic­king me high, and I don’t want to disap­point. That’s not what I’m going to do. I want to be the Chet Pic­kard I know I can be, but it’s not about me loo­king at pla­ying in the NHL right now. It’s about day-by-day, get­ting bet­ter, get­ting back to the way I can be, and it’s going to be a pro­cess, and I’m pre­pa­red and I’m com­mit­ted to get back there.”

That was Chet Pickard, in an interview with the Tennessean, published in the middle of November.  And in his next start, he broke that long losing streak that had plagued him going back to last season.

And until further notice, this is his show in Cincinnati.

The Cyclones are developmental affiliates for the Predators and Florida Panthers.  And Jacob Markstrom, one of the goaltenders for the Rochester Americans,  recently suffered a knee injury, prompting the recall of Chet’s co-tender in Cincy — leaving Chet as the bona fide #1 goalie in town.

Now, it was announced yesterday that Markstrom’s injury is not going to require surgery.  Team doctors in Florida concluded that it’s a minor knee sprain, and he’s being sent back to Rochester to rehab.  The last recovery timetable I read had a range of 2-3 weeks.

That kind of changes where I wanted to go with this story a bit.  If this was going to be a longer term injury for Markstrom, this had the potential to be a career defining moment for Chet.  This would be his chance to possibly carry his team to the playoffs on his back and make a statement.  A chance to get his stock rising again.

Nevertheless, if he’s looking to get his career back on track, the next two to three weeks will be a golden opportunity for Chet to show that he CAN be the man.

This past weekend, he recorded two wins against the Florida Everblades, giving up just three goals on 46 shots over the two games.  And according to Mike from the Cycwords blog, there has been obvious improvement — first and foremost, in Chet’s head.

“Early on it looked like he was ‘thinking’ his way through games, which led to breakdowns in technique and in turn, ‘soft’ goals. It just looked like he was doubting his game. He showed flashes of the potential that made him a 1st round pick, but they were inconsistent.

“Back on January 30th I think we saw what Chet was really capable of doing. It was a game against South Carolina and he got clipped in the head with a stick pretty hard early on. It must have jarred something because he started playing with a bit of swagger in that game en route to a 28 save shutout. Since then we’ve seen that same cocky swagger. He’s been chirping at the opposition and even holding his glove up in the face of the occasional shooter after a big glove save. Basically, wherever his head is, his game seems to follow suit.”

Since January 1st, he has a 7-6 record, and has given up two or less goals in seven of those games.

The Cyclones have ten games in the next three weeks, and  Mike says that while some fans may be hitting the panic button over the goalie situation, his concern is more about the defense in front of Chet.

“There are some that feel that neither of them (Chet or Marc Cheverie) are capable of stopping a beach ball and yearn for the return of Jeremy (Smith), and there are some that think their struggles relate to the sometimes porous defense in front of them. I fall into the later category; even Kelly Cup Play Co-MVP’s Jeremy Smith and Robert Mayer would have been left with their heads spinning after seeing the numerous odd man rushes the team was giving up early on.

“Former head coach Chuck Weber had a saying for goalies: ‘Stop the shots you’re supposed to and a few of the ones you’re not, and we’ll win games.’ That phrase is starting to apply more and more to Chet.”

And not a moment too soon.  We’ll be keeping an eye on his progress over the next few weeks, and I hope we’ll have some positive things to report.