forsberg

Poile did it.

The Preds now have Peter Forsberg.
Amazing.

I have to say, prior to today, i was cool to the idea of trading for him. I felt like we had a solid team that if we went on a roll could go deep. I was getting excited about the Preds winning a round or two. Now, we have to be cup favorites. Most of all i was afraid of us having to give up Hartnell or Radulov or someone else on our active roster.

But Poile knows what he's doing. We had to give up Scottie Upshall and defensive prospect Ryan Parent, both of who are solid players. But Upshall was about as good as he was going to be. Parent hurts a little more, but we are so deep with d-man prospects that it isn't a big concern. What hurts the most is the loss of our 1st and 3rd round picks next year. But again, Poile has drafted so well that Milwalkee (our minor league team) went all the way to the championship finals last year. We aren't hurting for young prospects.

And don't forget - Forsberg had to agree to this deal. He had a no-trade clause in his contract. He was willing and wanted to come to Nashville.

This has to take us from strong contenders to Cup favorites. My biggest concern is that our team is still very young, and few have gone deep in the playoffs. Now expectations are being poured on. How do they react? That's the only quesiton left for the Preds, and that is a good place to be.

For more coverage: Barry Melrose's take is here (video). Burnside here. SI article here. Tennessean here.