Ryan Ellis signing shows Predators believe nucleus can win it all — and it's the right play

Joe Rexrode | The Tennessean

This came loudly and clearly out of David Poile’s mouth, yet I had my doubts.

Was he really going to listen to his players after a crushing second-round, seven-game loss to the Winnipeg Jets? Did he really believe keeping the Nashville Predators’ nucleus together would be the best way to win a Stanley Cup? Doesn’t this team need another monster forward? Isn’t P.K. Subban going to be traded any day now, per media types who couldn’t possibly just be making up stuff on the fly?

Let’s review those Poile words, in light of his signing of defenseman Ryan Ellis to an eight-year, $50 million deal that further cements status quo as the approach for the 2018-19 season.

“It was clear as a group and in the locker room when a couple players spoke how they felt about our team,” Poile said, sitting next to Peter Laviolette in the end-of-season presser on May 14. “So yes, that’s going to be very influential. I sat here many years saying there’s got to be a lot of changes made, that I’m not happy with our team. I’ve watched my fellow general managers as each team gets eliminated do their press conferences, and everybody’s got a different take on their team. This is different -- I really think we’re building in the right direction. There’s not age factors on our team. It’s not … I mean we’re disappointed and frustrated. But it’s not like we want to throw the baby out with the bath water.”

He meant it. And it’s only “the right move” if a Stanley Cup results, but at this moment it’s clearly the “rightest” of the available moves. Because this defensive quartet is the best in the league, based on the bulk of the information and not just on the up-and-down postseason it endured. Because there’s more evidence to suggest Kyle Turris is the guy we thought he was entering that postseason, not the guy who disappeared during it.

Because the Predators were the best team in hockey last season, just not when it mattered most against the Jets – but they also dominated portions of that series, which makes it harder to really consider blowing this thing up without one more run at it.

Ellis: Home loss in Game 7 'tough pill to swallow' Ryan Ellis said that home ice was everything to the Predators last year, but after losing Game 7 to Winnipeg at home was a "tough pill to swallow."

Also, because Poile just struck another team-friendly deal. Maybe it’s a little longer than preferred, but an average annual value of $6.25 million is a major bargain. Ellis gets $8 million a year, I'll wager, if he hits the open market next summer. And yet …

“For me it was a no brainer,” Ellis said Tuesday on 102.5-FM. “I think a lot of guys are going to follow suit, and hopefully if everything works out we’ll keep this thing together and keep going in the right direction for many years.”

Ellis also acknowledged that he was seeking a no-trade clause, but he didn’t get it. He has said all along that he loves this team and this city, and the proof is in the signature on the dotted line. He’s as strong a leader as there is in a locker room with a lot of good ones, and to me it’s easy to throw out two rounds of goal-less hockey as an oddity. Look at what he did a year earlier on one knee.

So maybe this team is still a forward short of having everything needed to win a Cup. Maybe not. Poile has backed up his words and made the most sensible move and decided to find out.

You know, until he shakes up the hockey world again and deals Subban right before training camp.

Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.