Another defenseman? #^&%$%#@!#*

The sarcasm in my last post about the Preds drafting a defenseman was supposed to be just that, sarcasm. But low and behold, David Poile comes through for the faithful and drafts a defenseman with the 11th pick. A midget no less. Ryan Ellis is a 5'9" d-man. Just what we need. He'll be our Ville Koistenen if he ever makes it to Nashville. I'm not sure my readers know how much I despise Koistenen. He's horrible, and I pray to God we don't give him an offer and he's someone else's problem on July 1st. So the fact that we drafted a younger version of him irritates the crap out of me.
The Predators drafted 7 forwards and 3 defensemen this year. None of these forwards are going to make the team in the fall, so we still need to find the answer to our scoring problems through free agency. Sullivan may very well be gone. If he is, we will have 2 gaping holes in our top 6 forwards. Even if he does re-sign with us, we'll need someone to put with Legwand and Erat, both of whom haven't looked the same since Kariya left. His contract with St. Louis is up after next year, and he likely won't be commanding the $6 million dollars he's making now. A girl can dream that he will want to come back. But until then, we need someone for those two. And Ward is not the answer. He'd be a really good third line guy, but putting him on the 2nd line will not solve our problems.
I'm nervous about next season, to say the least. Unless Poile & Co. make a splash, Nashville may very well be in for another long season. I didn't think it could get worse than this past year; I suffered through some ridiculously boring hockey games. However, without Sullivan, Ward, and possibly having several rookies in the line-up at D and forward, it could get ugly fast. There is no room for error, and we cannot afford for Pekka to have any kind of sophomore slump. He needs to be stellar night in and out, and Danny Ellis needs to find his game for us to have any sort of chance.
I guess this is a long winded way of saying that I was disappointed with our first round draft pick and am nervous as hell about free agency.
It all begins, or ends, on Wednesday.
Bring it on.