After two years of rumors and speculation, the Matt Duchene trade saga finally came to an end this week when the Avalanche, Senators and Predators put their heads together for a rare three-team November blockbuster.

In the end, everybody finally got what they wanted.

Duchene got out of Colorado and is going to a team that was just one game (one goal, actually) away from being in the Stanley Cup Final. Ottawa gets a top-six center it had been trying to acquire for more than a year. Colorado gets a bounty of draft picks and prospects to help restock its cupboard.

MORE: Winners, losers of the Matt Duchene-Kyle Turris trade

What makes this trade so much more interesting is the astute maneuvering by Predators general manager David Poile and staff in the years, months and weeks leading up to Oct. 5, as well as the fact the Senators gave up Kyle Turris — a center who is pretty much Duchene’s equal from an offensive production standpoint — to finally make the trade happen.

How much better the Senators are today than they were a week ago is up for debate. The biggest advantage Duchene gives them over Turris at this point is that Duchene is one year younger and under contract for one more year. Turns was set to become an unrestricted free agent after this season, and it was pretty clear it was not going to work out for him long-term in Ottawa.

(SN graphic) https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/d0/74/turris-duchene-graphic_18c9mr3h2zebr101pdvt7qyydl.png?t=-1556207369&w=500&quality=80

Make no mistake, there is value in getting that extra year of control, even if the Senators find themselves in a similar situation next season when it comes to Duchene and his contract status. They certainly are not a worse team after the trade; they simply may not be that much better.

The only team involved in the deal that is demonstrably improved is Nashville, which jumped into the mix as a third party to help get Duchene to Ottawa.

MORE: Eight more players who could be traded this season

Immediately after acquiring Turris as part of the trade, the Predators were able to get him signed to a six-year, $36 million contract extension.

The trade gives the Predators a formidable trio of centers down the middle — the likes of which the franchise hasn't known in its short history — as Turris joins a team that already has Ryan Johansen and Nick Bonino. Both Turris and Bonino are new additions since last year’s Stanley Cup Final loss to the Penguins, where a lack of center depth was one of the biggest issues the Predators faced due to injuries to Johansen and Mike Fisher.

What is most impressive about this sequence for Nashville is how it was all made possible by some fantastic salary cap management in previous seasons.

After the addition of Turris and his new deal, the Predators already have 17 players under contract for next season, including every significant piece of their core, for a total salary cap hit of $65.9 million. Assuming the salary cap does not increase at all (it almost certainly will increase), the Predators would still have a little more than $9 million in flexibility to fill out the remainder of the roster. That is an astonishing level of wiggle room for a team this talented and with this many core players signed to long-term contracts.

HERMAN: Matt Duchene return gives Avalanche much-needed direction

It again all goes back to the shrewd long-term deals Poile negotiated with players like Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm. You can even include Filip Forsberg into that as well, as his $6 million cap hit through the end of the 2021-22 season is going to be an absolute steal.

Take a quick look at the Predators’ salary page at CapFriendly.com and you can see they have Johansen, Turris, Forsberg, Josi, Ekholm, P.K. Subban and Viktor Arvidsson all signed for at least the next three seasons at a combined salary cap hit of $40 million. Several of them are signed beyond the next three years. To have a core with that much talent locked in place for that long, with so many of them still in the prime of their careers, is an incredible piece of cap management by the Predators’ front office.

It not only ensures that they should remain consistent Stanley Cup contenders for the foreseeable future, but all of those bargain contracts have given them the flexibility to go out and add whatever missing pieces they may need.

That is something they have done twice over the past few months when they added Bonino and Turris to their collection of centers.

MORE: 'Excited' Kyle Turris finds better fit, new contract with Predators

There is an argument to be made — a pretty strong one, actually — that the Predators overpaid for Bonino. Perhaps they did the same by giving Johansen’s $8 million per year, but only by a little. When you look at the salary structure of the team as a whole, they have so many players signed for so long to bargain contracts that it allows them to dip into the free agency pool and add a player who can help put them over the top.

Bonino may not be a great fit as a No. 2 center, but he showed in Pittsburgh the past two seasons he's a tremendous option in the middle of the third line. Then when you add a player like Turris, who produces like a first-line player, to your second line, suddenly the Predators are back in business as contenders.

It is not an entirely fair situation for players like Forsberg or Josi to earn less than their market value to allow a free agent to probably get a little more, but it is allowing the Predators to build a roster that is as deep as any other team in the NHL.

It was all made possible by the contracts they signed in previous seasons.