While we were all worried about goalie waiver claims yesterday, the Preds were mulling other moves.

And two of them came out of left field today.

They traded defenseman Ryan Parent and forward Jonas Andersson (both former Admirals) to Vancouver, in exchange for defenseman Shane O’Brien and a prospect (forward Dan Gendur).

Then, they placed defenseman Alexander Sulzer on waivers, likely with the intention of sending him to Milwaukee.  This comes a day after defenseman Aaron Johnson cleared waivers, and set sail for Cream City.  This also leaves the Preds with just 6 defenseman on their roster.

Makes you wonder if there isn’t more stuff in the works too.

Why O’Brien?  Josh Cooper from the Tennessean sums it up nicely here:

“Expe­rience plays a big role in the NHL, and Parent had pla­yed 102 games in an injury-plagued career, while O’Brien had been a regu­lar for two con­se­cu­tive divi­sion cham­pionship teams.”

Ultimately, this was a salary dump for the Canucks, since they were over the cap, and need to not be by Wednesday.  Both Parent and Andersson were placed on waivers as soon as the deal was done, so we MAY be seeing both of them as members of the Manitoba Moose this year.

Unless someone claims them.  Someone…..maybe, Nashville?  I don’t even know if that’s possible, or if the CBA would frown on it (the CBA and I haven’t been on speaking terms for quite some time now).  But it’d be a pretty shrewd move by David Poile if he went that route…..basically trading for a tough defenseman, and then claiming what he gave up on waivers the next day!

A question that’ll need to be answered is where this Dan Gendur guy goes.  He’s Nashville property now.  Does he get a ticket to Milwaukee or Cincy?  Last year he split time between Johnstown and Victoria of the ECHL, recording 12 points in 29 games.  Cincy is my bet.

As far as Sulzer goes, he’s on a one-way contract, so he’s making the same change no matter where he plays.  He may get claimed, or he might sneak through and add some more scoring and leadership to what is becoming an incredibly deep batch of defenseman in Milwaukee.  The thing that makes him different than Aaron Johnson, is that Sulzer would need to pass through re-entry waivers should the Preds attempt to bring him back up.  Johnson would not have to go through those motions.

Blum, Sulzer, Josi (when healthy), Palin, Johnson, Lewis, Ford, and Lehman.  Pretty solid group.

Sorry Julien Brouillette….we may be hearing of your release sometime soon.

We’ll find out the waiver fates of Parent, Andersson, and Sulzer late tomorrow morning.

So yeah….that’s a lot to digest.  What do you make of it, Roundtable? Leave a message.

Question #1: What are you looking for out of your veterans during training camp and to start the season?

Coach Lambert: The first thing we are looking from our veterans is for leadership and direction for our younger guys, which is going to be critical.  That is a big job for them, to lead and to lead by example.  Later on we will establish our captains and assistants, which at this point is still a work in progress.  However, our veterans are here to get better and work to get better every day just like everyone else, but they are also here to show the younger kids that this is how it is done at this level.

Question #2: Has there been players at camp that have surprised you or stepped up and showed you something unexpected?

Coach Lambert: There have been signs and flashes for a few different guys, but I am not getting into any names.  But our preseason games (against Rockford and Chicago) are more indicative of somebody stepping up.  Players can be ok in practice, but where they really want to show what they are made of, they do it in the exhibition games, which are part of the evaluation process.

Question #3: What are looking for this season out of Blake Geoffrion, who just finished his career at the University of Wisconsin?  Is there more pressure on him playing professional hockey in state?

Coach Lambert: Obviously Blake has great potential, but he is no different than any other rookie.  He is going to have to establish himself, but there is a difference between the pro level and the college level, no question.  He is going to have to dedicate himself now that hockey is a full time job.  My job is to help get guys up to the National Hockey League and help develop players for the Nashville organization, and he is one of those players.

Question #4: When coaching first year and second year players who are used to being top-line guys with their former teams in college and in juniors, how do help them establish new roles and adjust their games to be successful professionally?

Coach Lambert: It starts with communication between me and a player.  Though this is a team game, it is played by individuals, some 22 or 23 guys, so it is important that we have a great line of communication and continue to work with the players and help them.  But what a player’s role is going to be is a decision that has to be made by us (as a staff).  Then the players have to accept that role and do what’s best for the team.

Question #5: How do you see your goaltending battle shaping up?

Coach Lambert: Our goaltending comes from in the Nashville Predators organization, but it is no different than any other position, with our decision being based on who is playing better than who.  At the end of the day, the best guy is going to end up playing more often.  We’ve been evaluating since day one, September 17^th at Nashville, so I have a pretty good clue as to how it is going to shape up, but our exhibition games were critical for both Chet Pickard and Jeremy Smith.   (Authors note:  Since this question was asked, Jeremy Smith was assigned to the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL, while Milwaukee added goaltender Mark Dekanich, who was a late cut from Nashville)

Hey hey!

– Defenseman Aaron Johnson cleared waivers, so he should be Milwaukee bound.  This may or may not impact the stay of Julien Brouillette, who avoided the pink slip on Sunday.

– Did you catch the twitter-madness about LA Kings goaltender Erik Ersberg?   The goalie was placed on waivers on Monday, and shortly thereafter, it was being reported/suggested that the Predators were going to be placing a waiver claim for Ersberg.

There’s a good summary of the whole charade here (note the part where Barry Trotz says that there is no interest in the guy), but here’s the short version courtesy of On The Forecheck that sums it up nicely:

“It appears that what we have here is a combination of semi-informed speculation from reputable journalists, and rumor-mongering from overzealous, hockey-deprived fans.”

It’s a little bit shame on them (the reporters), and a little bit shame on us (the fans).  It shows what an amazing tool twitter can be, but also shows how it can be abused if not used properly.  It’s another bruise in the mainstream media versus blogger media battle.

Of course, the Preds may still claim him on Tuesday and we’ll have some major goalie issues to sort out…. We’ll find out after 11am.

– Time to introduce some of the other cast members here at the Roundtable that’ll be leading some of the discussions this season!

First off, meet Andy Grebe.  Andy was an intern with the Admirals communication department last year, but he’s no stranger to the Milwaukee sports media.  He’s opinionated, he’s tech savvy, and can formulate complete sentences….so he’ll be an asset around these parts.

Also, pretty soon you’ll meet Jason Karnosky.  He’s a bona fide hockey writer, who will be providing some feature stories for the Admirals main website, and we’ll be poaching a few stories from him too.

And that’s the end of this post.

Congratulations Julien Brouillette!

He’s the only free-agent invite that survived the first round of Admirals cuts.

Dylan Hunter and Jeremy Smith were both re-assigned to Cincy (they’re both currently under contract).

Brett Robinson and Jean-Claude Sawyer were released to Cincy (they’re not under contract).

Connor Shields and Wes Cunningham were released to Greenville.

RJ Anderson and Kevin DeVergilio were released to Elmira.

And Chad Painchaud was released to Victoria.

Looks like Mike Bartlett may have played his way on to the roster.

We may still get a player or two from Nashville depending on waiver claims.  But we’ll be able to start daydreaming about line combinations in the next few days.

Stay tuned.

(Photo credit:  Scott Paulus)  Perhaps you’ve heard.  Perhaps you haven’t.  Goalie Mark Dekanich has been re-assigned to Milwaukee.

But did he get a fair shake in training camp?  Let’s look at some quotes and some stats.

Prior to last night’s game against the Thrashers in which Anders Lindback played all 60 minutes, the two goalies had played about the same amount of minutes.

Dekanich had 56:58 of ice time, and made 12 saves on just 14 shots.
Lindback had 60:21 of ice time, and made 29 of 30 saves.

Can Dekanich be faulted for not facing nearly as many shots as Lindback?

Prior to last night’s game, here are some sentences we can attribute to Coach Trotz.  (courtesy of the Tennessean)

“I haven’t com­mit­ted to going half the game or two periods and one period, that type of thing.  We’ll see how the game goes. I told them both to be ready to play tonight.  I’d pro­bably give a slight edge to Lind­back just because he’s had more work.  Just a slight edge. For the most part, they’ve made it dif­fi­cult which is exactly what you want.”

Ok, that’s fine.  So they’ll each probably get some ice time against Atlanta….they’ll just see how the game goes.

Well, after two periods, the game was tied 3-3.  Lindback had given up two goals over the final 10 minutes of the 2nd period to give back what was a 2-goal lead.  And when the 3rd period started, Lindback was still in net.

After the game, Coach talked about his reasoning…or at least what he’d like us to believe.

“I thought the plan going in, as I tal­ked to both goa­lies, was Lind­back would play two (periods) and we would see where that took us.  At 3-3, I didn’t think it was fair to put Deks in at that point. Obviously he wants to go in and prove him­self. I thought it was impor­tant that we con­ti­nue to forge forward.”

Didn’t think it was fair to put him in?  Is it more fair to talk about this great battle for the backup goalie position, but not give one of the contenders any ice time?  Since the 9:11 mark of the 2nd period on Friday the 24th, Dekanich has not seen any game action.  Makes you wonder if the decision had been made already.

Trotz continues:

“To me, he is a Chris Mason.  He’s a bull­dog, a great ath­lete, all those things. He’s going to play. I’m not too worried about him not pla­ying at all. He’s a guy that has just got­ten bet­ter and bet­ter. He’s a good pro no mat­ter the cir­cums­tan­ces, here or Milwaukee.”

I think there’s a compliment in there somewhere.  I’m not exactly sure where.  Somewhere?  Maybe?

While it’s easy to point to those things and say that he got a raw deal out of the so-called competition, there is a lot that is unknown to us.  In Milwaukee, we didn’t have the benefit of watching him (or Lindback) practice.  We didn’t have the benefit of being around Mitch Korn as he worked with the goaltenders over the course of the camp.  We don’t know what his attitude was like.  We don’t know how well Pekka Rinne and Lindback have bonded, since they are essentially clones of each other.  But obviously, more than just time-on-ice goes into making roster decisions like this.

While I don’t think Dex got a raw deal, I DO think Coach Trotz is in mid-season form when it comes to Coachspeak.

Ok Roundtable — what do you think?  Did Mark Dekanich get a raw deal in the backup goalie competition?  And if Chet Pickard is the “goalie of the future”, how much ice-time do you think Dex should get with the Admirals while he’s here?

Aaron Sims has a great blog entry about some of the goings-on at camp today…you can check out the full blog here.

Among other things, he broke down the forward lines that practiced today.  Of course, they’ll be a little different tomorrow as some extra bodies will be dressing for the first time.  But it’ll be interesting to see the consistencies over the next week of who is playing with who on a regular basis.

Chad Painchaud – Michael Bartlett – Chris Mueller

Gabriel Bourque – Blake Geoffrion – Ryan Flynn

Kelsey Wilson – Mark Van Guilder – Mark Santorelli

Brett Robinson – Dylan Hunter – Andreas Thuresson

Kevin DeVergilio – Connor Shields – Ryan Thang

Josh Cooper is the man.

He’s the man for many reasons.

First and foremost, he’s the man, because he’s not John Glennon.  Who is NOT the man.

Josh Cooper is the new beat reporter for The Tennessean newspaper, and he’s done an amazing job so far with breaking stories and being on top of things.  He’s a pro on twitter (@JoshuaCooper), and was able to share with us that some players are coming to Milwaukee today.

So be sure to give a warm Milwaukee welcome (or welcome back, depending on the player) to:

Chet Pic­kard
Brett Palin
Teemu Laakso
Grant Lewis
Kel­sey Wil­son
Andreas Thu­res­son
Nick Spaling
Matt Halischuk

Pickard dressed last night, but never saw any action in any of the pre-season games.  Halischuk was the only player from the bunch to register a point in any of the pre-season games…but then again, only 10 of all the players in camp have done so.  Halischuk was tied for tops in camp with one goal and one assist.

Stay tuned…

UPDATE:  Our friends at Section303 are reporting that Linus Klasen is on his way back as well.

The Preds still have not been able to get that elusive third goal in the pre-season, but they were able to get their second win tonight, 2-1 over the Atlanta Thrashers.  You can read a nice recap here…

Chet Pickard suited up, but did not see any action.

Blake Geoffrion was re-assigned to Milwaukee earlier this afternoon, but as of right now, there haven’t been any additional moves announced to send more guys to Milwaukee.  Maybe David Poile and company were caught up with the Monday Night Football game?

Admirals training camp opens Tuesday, and they’ll hit the ice for the first time Tuesday evening.

POINTS FOR DISCUSSION:

– Give me a haiku about the football game.

– Matt Halischuk and Jamie Lundmark have had some nice camps for the Preds so far.  Do you think they either of them have the chance to unseat an incumbent like Jerred Smithson?