This Isn't A Van Halen Post

If you know the tune, you can sing along, but as of right now "Subban's with the Devils"! The Nashville Predators, needing to shed salary to re-sign Roman Josi and possibly get in on the Matt Duchene sweepstakes, pulled the trigger on a massive deal that saw them send defenceman PK Subban to the New Jersey Devils in exchange defencemen Steven Santini and Jeremy Davies, a 2019 second-round draft pick that was 34th overall, and a 2020 second-round draft pick. If one was seeking a blockbuster deal, this may qualify as PK Subban joins his third NHL team despite his continued high-level of play over the last few years.

The key on this trade happening, it seems, was Subban's $9 million annual salary for the next three seasons as Nashville sought some cap relief to sign their captain in Roman Josi combined with the fact that Subban posted a career-low 31 points in 63 games last season. While some may argue that having one "off" season shouldn't do the all-star defender in when it comes to seeking a trade, it's hard to absorb a cap hit of $9 million with that little production. If that trend continued into this season, it's likely that Nashville's return for Subban would have been less.

"We had to make a business decision," David Poile said in a statement. "With an aim at strengthening our forward corps this off-season, and the continued strength of our defensive group, we felt it was necessary to clear up salary cap space this way."

One way they improved the forward corps already was when Poile dealt that 34th-overall pick to Philadelphia for the 45th- and 65th-overall picks where Poile selected Russian left-winger Egor Afanasyev and Canadian left-winger Alexander Campbell. While those two men won't help the Predators next season as Poile will likely have them toil in the minors as most Predators picks do. Instead, the cap relief created by taking $9 million off the books without retaining any salary makes things all sorts of interesting for the Predators this summer.

On the other side, the Devils add PK Subban to a blue line that already features Will Butcher, Damon Severson, and Mirco Mueller. While they aren't the most physical bunch, those four have enough skill to be able to hold their own offensively, and should be decent in their own zone. Adding Subban gives the Devils the big shot from the blue line that occasionally seemed to be missing, hopefully improving the 21st-ranked power-play with another weapon.

Of course, Nashville's power-play featuring PK Subban was 31st-overall on the power-play last season, so sprinkle a little salt on that previous paragraph. It may simply come down to PK Subban being better on his own to see his numbers and, in turn, the Devils' numbers improve.

One of the biggest chips on the market this summer has now moved. Will it cause a flurry of other moves today and over the next week before free agency starts? We shall see, but it's pretty clear that the devil will be in the details in any further moves.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!