Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced today that the club has acquired a fourth-round pick in the 2012 Entry Draft in exchange for forward Cal O’Reilly. The trade is pending O’Reilly passing a physical.
The Predators
now have nine draft picks for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft to be held June
22-23, 2012 at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pa. – their
own picks in the first, second and fourth through seventh rounds in
addition Toronto’s third-round pick and the New York Rangers’
sixth-round selection, and now, Phoenix’s fourth-round selection.
O'Reilly had been out of the line up recently because of a pulled groin.
One has to wonder about this trade. O'Reilly had provided depth at the center position and had played some quality minutes for the Predators. In 74 games for the Predators, O'Reilly had 11 goals and 24 assists. It leads me to speculate that O'Reilly was considered expendable with the depth at center and perhaps GM David Poile is amassing some draft picks to use as possible trade fodder.
It is no secret that the Predators need scoring, and now Poile has nine draft picks for the draft. Poile has to be keenly aware of the need for more scoring on this team, and he could package some draft picks with a player to pick up some offensive punch. Regardless, this gives him a few more cards in his hand to play as the trade deadline approaches.
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