Nashville Acquires Gill

			2011/2012 Stats				2012	July 1st Details
To Nashville	Pos	Age	GP	G	A	P	Cap Hit	Years	Cap Hit
Hal Gill	D	36	53	1	7	8	$2.25m	0	UFA
Conditional 2013 5th Round Draft Pick
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To Montreal	Pos	Age	GP	G	A	P	Cap Hit	Years	Cap Hit
Blake Geoffrion	F	24	22	0	3	3	$1.06m	0	RFA
Robert Slaney	F	23	0	0	0	0	$575k	0	RFA
2012 2nd Round Draft Pick

Hal Gill, the hulking defenseman, was going to be one of the top prizes around the deadline and with just over a week to go before the deadline frenzy, the Nashville Predators stepped up and threw a solid package at the Canadiens for the stay-at-home defender.  Gill and a conditional pick head down to Nashville for prospect forward Blake Geoffrion and Robert Slaney, plus, a 2nd round pick in this Summer's draft.

The Predators receive a lot more defensive size to put on their blueline, possibly to counteract the distinct size difference that they have with young offensive defenseman Ryan Ellis.  The Predators don't have a great deal of size beyond Shea Weber on the their blueline, so adding more must have been a prime directive for management and it is rarely a bad idea to do so.

The Canadiens, on the other hand, get somewhat of an underachieving prospect in Geoffrion, who may gain a little bit more inspiration, going to the club which made his last name so famous.  Geoffrion has a bit of size to him and has some offensive upside, some of which the Predators were not fortunate to have seen in his 22 games with the club this year, before heading down to the minors.

The 2nd round draft pick in this Summer's draft also looks quite appealing, which possibly says to the dramatic decline in value Geoffrion may have had in the Nashville organization, as Gill may have only warranted that size of pick a year ago, so you can see the price is getting quite high for defensive defensemen at the deadline.

Well, there is some pool value here, but not very much. Geoffrion is the only player of the three dealt here to be on the selection sheet pool, as Gill is not normally known as a offensive force, so his inclusion in pool festivities is rare, to say the least.  Geoffrion wasn't popular this year, but you could imagine that he will get more than his fair share of fan fare when training camp opens in September and possibly some lofty expectations to live up to as well.