Predators deal Bieksa to the Coyotes

NASHVILLE, TN - 

The Predators announced they have shipped defenseman Kevin Bieksa to the Arizona Coyotes. Eric Wolf, GM of the Predators spoke with media today to address the fans of what's ahead for the Predators.

"First and foremost, it was very hard for me to trade Bieksa. He was a great character guy to have, and really implemented a lot of personality on our blueline. But as an organization, we have goals to reach, we have plans we've set since day 1, and in moving Bieksa, we get closer to what we want to achieve here."

Nashville re-acquired their original 4th round pick, a pick they initially traded at the beginning of the season. "It's the super draft. That 4th round pick is technically a 2nd rounder. We like having our own picks, and I made sure we got our own back in this draft."

With Nashville's recent moves, they've been dealing veterans for future assets, which has made most fans wonder if the Predators are indeed rebuilding... or opting for a young roster. Those claims from fans were immediately dismissed by Wolf.

"We look at the first EHE season as a test run for our franchise. We continue to assess and map out different scenarios in which we can get to our ultimate goal. Sure, we've shipped out some vets for prospects/picks, but it's our priority to invest in this superdraft this year. There will never be a deeper draft, and I am a big believer in having a continiously healthy prospect pipeline. We've created some holes on our roster, but we firmly believe in building within' the organization. We thank Bieksa for being a contributor on our blueline for the first season, but our focus is shifting to building from within' and making sure we have quality prospects for our development staff to work with. We are by no means rebuilding, we are making the deals we need to make to ensure success every year. Once the superdraft is over, we will then shift our focus to improving our pro roster. We will be competing next year, and then continue to get better every year after that. But right now, we need to focus on our future reinforcements in order to structure those desired goals."

"We'll miss Bieksa, but he fell out of favour in our top 4 defenseman. We also shave about 3.5 million in cap space. Space that we can now invest in improving other faucets of our team that are at a higher priority for us. We also wanted to get more mobility on the back end and inject it with some much needed youth that we feel Severson can replace, as well as a future young defenseman that we plan to implement on our team moving forward." Wolf said in a final statement.

The Nashville Predators will be selecting 1st overall and 24th overall in the EHE superdraft. So there's no doubt the Predators organization will get injected with a plethora of more youth come draft time. And in retaining their 4th round pick, it's safe to say Wolf is investing a lot in this draft with 5 picks within' the first 98 selections.