The Nashville Predators swooped in and won the Wayne Simmonds sweepstakes right ahead of the deadline, parting ways with 2018 deadline addition Ryan Hartman and a pick.
Predators get: RW Wayne Simmonds
Flyers get: LW Ryan Hartman, 2020 fourth-round pick that becomes a third-rounder if Nashville wins a playoff series
Predators: B-plus
Remember when we thought Predators general manager David Poile might stand pat at the deadline? He acquired Brian Boyle and re-acquired Cody McLeod, and that might be it?
Yeah, that wasn't very on-brand. Poile, it turns out, made a statement after all. On Monday, he acquired Mikael Granlund from the Wild, an in-division rival (and his former mentee, Paul Fenton) as well as Wayne Simmonds.
Simmonds, who hits unrestricted free agency this summer, is a rental who is designed to help this team in the rough-and-tumble Western Conference playoffs. He's a big body that can get in front of the net and does so willingly. The 30-year-old also has leadership intangibles that make him a positive locker room presence, in the same vein as Boyle.
The Predators were exposed in last year's playoffs for being too one-dimensional on offense. Simmonds helps that.
One of Nashville's biggest weaknesses this season has been the power play; they rank last in the NHL, at 12.6 percent. They now can have their top two units with Simmonds, and then Boyle in front of the net. Simmonds and Alex Ovechkin are the only players in the NHL to score 10-plus power-play goals in each of the previous five seasons.
However, it's also worth noting Simmonds has not had success in his past two postseasons, going scoreless in all 12 games, as the Flyers had six-games-and-out exits.
Hartman is a loss only because of the high price the Predators paid for him last season (a first-round pick and a very strong prospect in Victor Ejdsell). He wasn't a liability for the Predators, but the offensive upside wasn't what it was projected to be. Hartman was going to be a career third- or fourth-liner for them, so it was smart to cut ties, even if it meant admitting a past mistake.
Flyers: C
This move was inevitable as soon as the Flyers' season spiraled this fall. Simmonds and his representatives had chatted with then-GM Ron Hextall about an extension over the summer, and the possibility lingered when the Flyers hired GM Chuck Fletcher. However, it wasn't meant to be, as the Flyers are looking to retool.
Keeping him for the rest of the season didn't make sense as, despite a recent push coinciding with strong play by Carter Hart, the Flyers aren't a playoff team. Simmonds feels like a player tailor-made for the Flyers. He was a beloved locker room presence who will be missed. The Flyers held on to him for as long as they could, with the slim hope that perhaps they could be a postseason team this year.
The return is less than expected. Though Philadelphia might have hoped for a first-round pick in return, Simmonds' so-so production this season -- and his non-production over the Flyers' past two playoff series -- dropped the price. (Simmonds also had some trade protection, which limited their options). The Flyers should have at least secured a second-rounder, though, or even a third. The silver lining? The fourth-rounder should become a third-rounder, barring a Predators' upset in the first round of the playoffs. But it would be better to have that secure.
Ryan Hartman is a first-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks' who plays with an edge. He's only 24 and already has 226 games of NHL experience, but he's not a big offensive producer, averaging only 0.19 goals and 0.31 points per game. He'll plug in on a middle line for the Flyers, but his upside is probably not what the Predators projected it to be around this time last year.