Nashville Matched the Shea Weber Offer Sheet, So Now What?

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In a move that surprised absolutely nobody, the Nashville Predators matched the offer sheet handed down by the Philadelphia Flyers for Shea Weber this afternoon, their Twitter account confirmed early Tuesday afternoon. The offer sheet was a megabucks deal, worth $110M over the next 14 years. Weber, 26, is looking like he will be set to be a Predator for life. That is of course unless he requests a trade following the 2012-13, which he is technically able to do. I personally wouldn't count on that, but stranger things have happened.

Let's face facts here firstly. This was a move that had to be done. After Nashville lost Ryan Suter to fellow Western Conference team Ryan Suter, there was no way that David Poile & co. could afford to lose Suter and their franchise defenceman Weber. To go into the season without arguably the now-formerly top defensive pairing in the league would be a near-crippling blow to probably the most successful young franchise in all of sports. It took a while, but Poile pounced on the defenceman and kept him in Nashville, which was music to the city's ears.

So now that the Predators have Weber locked up, and All-World goaltender Pekka Rinne is signed for long-term, where do the Predators go from here? 

Where Does Nashville Stand in the Western Conference as of Right Now?

It's very clear that they are a team that is continually on the rise, but with that said, they may find themselves in Western Conference purgatory. At this point, I think that Chicago, Vancouver, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and San Jose all could be in the Top-5 of the Western Conference next season. With that said, is Nashville in the mix? When you look at their current roster, you could argue that perhaps they do. Certainly losing Suter does not help things, but they still do have Rinne in between the pipes, Weber manning the blue line, and some good but not great scoring options up front on the forwards. This team is still a viable threat in the wild, wild West, but some beefing up could be in order.

What Should They Do to Get Them Over the Top?

Nashville could definitely look for a defenceman to pair up with Shea going forward. Three of the top five prospects that they currently have in their farm system are defencemen in Ryan Ellis, Jonathan Blum, and Roman Josi. David Poile & co. have always been excellent drafters and they did take a defenceman with their 118th pick in Mikko Vainonen from the country of Finland. Those may be long-term options, as it is relatively unknown whether or not Ellis, Blum or Josi can play right away. For the short-term, they could pick up a player like Pavel Kubina who still remains unsigned. Kubina is not Ryan Suter by any shot, but picking him up couldn't hurt. From there, the Predators who re-signed Andrei Kostitsyn look to be going into the season with what they have. For what they have at this point, that should not be a problem for them. I fully expect Poile to have a plan in mind, and for Barry Trotz, one of the best coaches in the league year in and year out, to coach up the Predators and make them look even better than they look to the naked eye.