Predators reject idea of P.K. Subban trade, and we're all dumber for discussing it

P.K. Subban and the trading block came up Monday at the exit press conference for Predators general manager David Poile and coach Peter Laviolette, which resulted in a couple of lost minutes in an otherwise worthwhile 44 minutes of discussion.

And so here is a lost column on a day in which many other things could have been written. But it’s also a column about media and social media today, which so often conspire to twist and overblow things that on their face barely merit a mention. First, here’s what I know about P.K. Subban:

The Predators are not actively looking to deal him, and they shouldn't be. He’s a huge part of this team, on the ice and in the locker room. I’ve detected absolutely nothing, in observing and in talking to people who see things I don’t see and who have no reason to lie, that would suggest he’s some kind of “problem” in the locker room.

Whatever happened in Montreal with Subban, the perpetuation of that myth in Nashville is more confounding to me than the random nights on the road when he’s the guy opposing fans pick out to boo. It’s somewhere in the range between lazy and reckless.

I can’t sit here and tell you with absolute conviction that every person on this team loves Subban and everything about him, but I can tell you he fits in well to a strong locker room, or I have gone senile. If there’s actually some significant issue between Subban and his teammates, the Tennessean should fire me today.

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Also, that makes the Predators an incredible collection of actors, and they should consider supplementing their hockey incomes as an off-Broadway troupe. My goodness, the club even went so far as to vote for Subban for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy for leadership on and off the ice and humanitarian contributions. Diabolical, pretending to respect him like that!

P.K. Subban's future with the Predators

I can’t tell you Poile would never trade Subban. Poile will listen to any team on any one of his players, as any general manager would. If someone offered the world – with ready-made assets that would keep the Predators in this open window of contention – then he would have to consider it. It’s hard for me to imagine what that package would be, and I would count myself as 99.999 percent sure Subban will be with the Predators on opening day in October, but sure. The door is technically cracked open.

That doesn’t mean a question was needed on the matter Monday, but I don’t blame Steve Layman of WTVF-Channel 5 for asking it. Layman said to Poile and Laviolette of Subban that “someone in Canada basically said he’s on the trading block,” and Laviolette interrupted.

“Where’s he going?” Laviolette said.

“P.K. is here, for me,” Laviolette continued. “Listen, he’s been here for two years, and we’re moving in a pretty good direction here with him as part of our club. He’s been awesome. His regular season, I thought, was really good last year; he might have been the best player on our team in the playoffs last year, just with regard to the way he and (Mattias) Ekholm played and defended. From that playoffs it went right into the regular season this year. He’s up for the Norris Trophy. I thought again that P.K. and Ekholm had an outstanding playoffs. I don’t know if there was growth from year one to year two; he was just awesome in both years for me. He’s coachable. Plays big minutes. Plays against the best players. Produces in the defensive zone and produces in the offensive zone. I mean, you can’t ask for anything more than that.”

Where talk started

Layman’s question was inspired by comments from David Pagnotta over the weekend on TSN Radio 690 in Montreal. Pagnotta, editor in chief of The Fourth Period, dubbed as “hockey’s lifestyle magazine,” was talking about various trade possibilities this summer and mentioned Subban’s name. He was pressed and elaborated.

“There have been discussions throughout the later part of the season that he was available,” Pagnotta said, without specifying who did the discussing. “Now, it would have taken certainly a significant type of a deal to do it, just like it was with moving him to Nashville for Shea Weber. But there were teams that called and David Poile listened and he’s going continue to listen, from what I’ve been told. He’s going to continue to listen now.

“As of now, there’s nothing close. They just ended their season. But those talks will continue, in and around June, as we get closer to the draft. There’s no guarantee. One thing I can tell you is P.K. is not finishing his career in Nashville. He’ll be traded from the Predators at some point. And it’s possible that it happens this summer. Some people are going to talk about the way he is in the room and the similar situation that happened in Montreal, with regard to some guys liking him, some guys not. Management liking him, some guys not. It’s effectively the exact same situation in Nashville. So whether something will happen this summer, I don’t know.”

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So … a whole bunch of nothing there. And as long as Subban is traded at some point, even in the twilight of his career, Pagnotta is covered. I can’t blame him for most of what he said here, other than the locker room narrative that “some people are going to talk about.”

I can blame TSN, though, for this sensational headline on the interview – “Pagnotta: P.K. Subban likely to be traded out of Nashville.”

That makes it seem like there’s actually something solid and imminent here. Wrong on both counts. And I can blame several of the tweets I read that resulted from this interview, tweets that took things way too far, a few referring to a “locker room incident” in Nashville even though no one has actually reported, rumored or taken the time to fictionalize such an incident.

Finally, I can blame myself for being at more than 1,000 words on this topic by the end of this sentence. Subban’s going to be in Nashville this fall, but senility and lack of brevity might require a new columnist to write about him.

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