Weber deal official

From TSN:

Defenceman Shea Weber has signed a three-year, $13,5 million contract with the Nashville Predators, avoiding restricted free agency.

Read the entire article here.

I'd say these are fair terms for both sides. Weber had a setback last year with an early season injury and he never seemed to get back to his former self, especially offensively, until very late into the season. That being said, the Predators know how valuable he is to their team and Weber obviously seems like it in Nashville. With the way the market is heading, a $4.5 million average cap hit for three years will probably be a pretty big bargain by the time the deal is complete. It may even be a bargain as early as next season; Weber is that good.

Weber and Predators closing in on contract agreement

From John Glennon of the Tennessean:

The Predators are very close to reaching an agreement with defenseman Shea Weber, and could finalize the deal as early as today, according to Weber's agent, Don Meehan.

Weber is expected to sign a multi-year deal with the team.

"All I know is that things are going good so far,'' Weber said of the negotiations. "Hopefully we'll get something done soon.''

Read the entire story here.

No surprise here. The Predators gave Ryan Suter the money and you knew Shea Weber wasn't far behind. The biggest questions are obviously what his average salary per year will be and what term did he receieve?

Predators defense looking good

From John Glennon of the Tennessean:

Predators General Manager David Poile believes he's putting together the kind of blueline corps that will make his team a Cup contender for years to come as well.

He cemented another long-term addition Monday with the signing of Ryan Suter to a four-year, $14 million deal.

The next goal is to re-sign potential restricted free agent Shea Weber. That would give the team three of the league's better young defensemen — Suter, Weber and Dan Hamhuis.

"In my mind, we're really happy with all of our defensemen,'' Poile said. "But we certainly see players like Dan Hamhuis and Shea Weber and Ryan Suter as some of the best young defensemen in all of the NHL. They're three players you'd like to build your team around for a long time.''

Read more from Glennon here.

Glennon is exactly right. The Predators have a terrific core of young defensemen moving forward. These three youngsters can all move the puck, play the body and skate. The team just needs to make sure they get Shea Weber's name on a long-term contract.

Predators have some signings to take care of

From John Glennon of the Tennessean:

As of late last week, the Predators were not on the verge of new deals with Ellis, Suter or Weber. Poile said the only real deadline pressure involves Ellis, since he could become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

Read the entire article here.

After the way Dan Ellis played down the stretch, you have to expect the two sides to come to terms on a contract. More interesting for me, will be how much the team offers Suter and Weber. Weber was injured early last season and struggled to match his offensive output from the year before. Considering many call Weber the "unknown" Dion Phaneuf, I wonder what he will command in salary and term. Additionally, Suter is a young solid defenseman, who will probably command a fairly high and lengthy salary. I wonder whether the two will want similar dollars...

NHL Morning Papers (Monday Edition)

Here are the national morning papers:

• Jim Matheson of the National Post says you would be foolish if you didn't expect a lot of tears tonight when Mark Messier takes the podium for his Hall of Fame induction speech.
• Mike Brehm of USA Today takes a look at each of the four Hall of Fame inductees and their respective qualifications.

Here are the Eastern Conference morning papers:

• In this morning's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bill Tiller wonders if Thrashers' GM and coach Don Waddell will have a goaltending controversy on his hands when Kari Lehtonen returns from injury.
• The Bruins were happy to end their four-game losing streak on Saturday and, as a result, were given Sunday off. Bruins' goaltender Tim Thomas has been absolutely tremendous this season writes Stephen Harris of the Boston Herald.
• The Sabres have only scored four goals in their last four games and now sit tied with the Oilers and Capitals for last place in the NHL standings.
• Luke Decock of the News Observer profiles Hall of Fame inductee Ron Francis in this morning's paper. In other Canes' news, injured forward Andrew Ladd is hoping to be able to take part in battle drills and practice by Tuesday.
• The Panthers are hoping to get Bryan Allen back from his concussion for Thursday's game against the Capitals. Meanwhile, Florida forward Brett McLean will be out of the lineup for a while as an Ilya Kovalchuk slapshot broke the metacarpal bone in his right finger.
• Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette details the maturation and progression of Habs' defenseman Mike Komisarek.
• Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger provides readers with the Devils' perspective of the Scott Stevens induction to the Hall of Fame tonight. On the ice, Martin Brodeur goes for his 500th career win at home tonight versus the Penguins.
• The Rangers, at least for now, have given up on any Drury or Gomez with Jagr combination, and now have four solid and evenly spread out forward lines.
• Things are looking rosy on the Island right now opines Greg Logan of Newsday.
• Daniel Alfredsson has evolved into quite a leader in the Senators' dressing room writes Chris Stevenson of the Ottawa Sun. Allen Panzeri of the Ottawa Citizen tells readers to expect Martin Gerber to start at least three of the Senators' next four games.
• The Flyers' penalty killing has been impressive in the last few weeks. "Our penalty-killing has really been coming," says Flyers' coach John Stevens.
• If the Penguins want to turnaround their season, they have to stop giving up the first goal of the game to their opponent writes Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette. The Pens should be well-rested for tonight's game versus the Devils after coach Michel Therrien gave the team Sunday off.
• Many teams would have panicked, but John Tortorella and Jay Feaster kept their composure during the early season slumping and injuries incurred by the Lightning and it has paid off in the team's recent success.
• Pavel Kubina has been lost to the Leafs indefinitely with a injury to his MCL in his right knee. Leafs' defenseman Wade Belak says that Rangers' forward Sean Avery will get what's coming to him eventually and most players in the NHL won't be sad to see it.

Here are the Western Conference morning papers:

• It took him awhile, but Aaron Miller has finally begun to his his stride, which is just in time to pick up the slack for the other Canucks' injured defensemen. Meanwhile, feisty forward Jeff Cowan is almost ready to return to game-action after missing eleven games with a hip ailment. For all that the veterans contribute to the team, the key for the Canucks is that the Sedin twins have finally found their legs.
• Jeremy Roenick had a rather tame after-party to celebrate his 500th career NHL goal.
• Predators' coach Barry Trotz wants forward Jordin Tootoo to play every game like he played Saturday's game versus Columbus writes John Glennon of the Tennessean. In injury news, coach Trotz said that the earliest Shea Weber could return to the lineup would be Saturday against St. Louis.
• The Wild just didn't have enough firepower to defeat division leading Colorado last night in Denver losing the game 4-2. Injured Wild winger Marian Gaborik is hoping to play on the team's current road trip but doesn't want to comeback too early writes Michael Russo of the Star Tribune.
• After Saturday's win over the Flames, Oilers' coach Craig MacTavish made sure to give his team some much needed rest on Sunday writes Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Sun.
• The Hawks continued their role as Wings-killer last night ruining Detroit's chance to win ten games in a row. The Detroit goaltending situation is not as tense as you may think, as both goalies have made it a friendly rotation writes Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press.
• The Stars will not be forgetting their Saturday night meltdown for a while; "Other than embarrassing, it's a total lack of respect for each other, in my mind," said goaltender Marty Turco.
• Curtis Glencross was a late addition to the lineup on Saturday and maybe Ken Hitchcock should make that more of a ritual with the youngster as he played a great game against the Predators. Here are the Blue Jackets' projected lines for tonight's rematch versus Nashville.
• With last night's 4-2 win over the Wild, the Avs moved to an impressive 9-1 at home this season. However, it wasn't all good news for the Avalanche as they lost the services of checking winger Ian Lapperiere for 2-4 weeks with a sprained right knee.
• The Hawks not only impressed the over 19,000 people who came to the United Center last night with their win over the Red Wings, but they also impressed the television viewers who were able to watch a Hawks home game for the first time in years.
• Randy Sportak of the Calgary Sun still thinks the Flames will make the playoffs even though they have squandered an early-season home-heavy schedule.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.

NHL Morning Papers (Sunday Edition)

Here are the Eastern Conference morning papers:

• The Thrashers three game win steak was ended last night by a superior Carolina team who defeated Atlanta 5-3. Craig Custance of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution documents the surprises, good and bad, surrounding the Thrashers this season.
• The Bruins demonstrated composure last night, responding to the Sabres' game-tying short-handed goal by scoring the game-winning goal thirty two seconds later. Meanwhile, Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe profiles Chris Bourque, among many things, in his Sunday notes column. Needless to say, Bruins' defenseman Aaron Ward was furious that Francis Bouillon's hit to his head was deemed an accident.
• The Sabres took the play to the Bruins for most of the night but they, as has been the case all season, just couldn't crack the scoresheet writes Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News. Sabres' winger Maxim Afinogenov was benched last night after he turned the puck over and it led to a Bruins' goal.
• The Hurricanes were unhappy with their performance Thursday against the Lightning and responded well to that poor performance by beating the streaking Thrashers 5-3 on the road Saturday night. In other Canes' news, Dennis Seidenberg no longer has visa issues and has rejoined the Hurricanes
• Olli Jokinen says the Panthers have to stop skating on the outside if they want to draw more penalties.
• The Habs may have lost yesterday's contest to the Senators, but they never lack leadership with Saku Koivu on the ice as the feisty Finnish center took on Patrick Eaves in a quasi-fight. Kevin Mio of the Montreal Gazette has an interesting Q & A with Habs' off-season acquisition Tom Kostopoulos.
• One of the Devils' coaches took a bench minor which gave the Islanders a 5-on-3, and Miroslav Satan made them pay by scoring the game-winning goal on that power play. "You can't lose a game that way," said coach Brent Sutter after the contest.
• Islanders' captain Bill Guerin left last night's game after taking a puck off the head and no update on his condition will be released until tomorrow.
• Stephen Valiquette provided a good argument for giving Henrik Lundqvist more games off with his performance last night in Toronto. Larry Brooks of the NY Post demonstrates his support for Eric Lindros's induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in his Sunday Slap Shots column. Sean Avery started a scuffle before the game even began last night in Toronto writes John Dellapina of the NY Daily News.
• The Senators proved you almost have to play a perfect game to beat them as the Habs came up five minutes short and were defeated 3-1 yesterday afternoon. Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun provides readers with his usual rumor roundup.
• The Flyers/Penguins is becoming quite a rivalry writes Tim Panaccio of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
• After last night's 5-2 loss to the Flyers, Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wonders how low Marc-Andre Fleury's confidence can really get.
• After struggling for a couple weeks, the Lightning seem to have regained their confidence and are now back to .500 after defeating the Capitals 5-2 on Saturday night.
• The Capitals were in the game until the third period when the Lightning took over writes Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post.
• The Leafs could not get enough pucks past Etobicoke native Stephen Valiquette as the Rangers upended Toronto 3-2 in a shootout in last evening's Hall of Fame game. "He has no sense of class," said Darcy Tucker about Sean Avery after the contest.

Here are the Western Conference morning papers:

• You won't find any person with a bad thing to say about soon-to-be Hall of Fame inductee Al MacInnis writes Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
• Jeremy Roenick was beyond excited, and understandably so, after scoring his 500th goal last night in the Sharks 4-1 win over his former team the Coyotes.
• The Predators demonstrated resiliency last night after blowing a late two goal but coming back to defeat the Blue Jackets 4-3 in a shootout. Predators' defenseman Shea Weber is getting closer to a return from a dislocated knee cap, although no date has yet been set for his return.
• Michael Russo has an interesting story about Wild rookie James Sheppard and the support he is receiving from a former Wild forward. It looks like goaltender Niklas Backstrom re-injured his groin in practice yesterday and will miss tonight's game at Colorado.
• The Kings pulled off a remarkable comeback last night at home versus the Stars, you almost have to have seen it to believe it writes Lisa Dillman of the L.A. Times.
• The Oilers got a much-needed victory last night over their provincial rival Flames to inch closer to the .500 level on the season. There may be a definite goalie controversy in the Albertan capital after Mathieu Garon turned aside 37 of the 39 shots he faced last night in Calgary.
• The Wings aren't even concentrating on their long winning streak, they just want to take it game-by-game.
• The Stars somehow blew a 4-0 lead with eight minutes remaining in the game and have unofficially reached 'rock bottom.'
• The Blue Jackets showed some character last night by rallying from two goals down in the third to salvage a point, however, they were defeated 4-3 by the Predators in a shootout.
• Avalanche superstar Joe Sakic only has one goal in his past eleven games but that doesn't mean the sniper will stop shooting writes Adrian Dater of the Denver Post.
• Melissa Isaacson of the Chicago Tribune has a great piece on Hawks' rookie Patrick Kane in this morning's of paper.
• It's now five losses in a row for the Flames after they were defeated by the young Oilers 4-2 on Saturday night. With Daymond Langkow on the shelf with a concussion, center Matthew Lombardi has been promoted to center the second unit.

For Illegal Curve, I'm Richard Pollock.