On one hand, matching the offer sheet ensures that Shea Weber will be sticking around Nashville for at least another season. Nashville also proves they are willing to stay competitive and not bow down to the bigger market teams like Philadelphia. Most importantly, they will retain most of their fan support from last years playoff run, many of whom would probably fade away if Nashville would have lost both Weber and Ryan Suter.
On the other hand, Poile is committing a lot of money to Weber, one of the NHLs best defenceman. The contract is very front loaded with Weber due to make a lot of money next season which Nashville is now locked into paying seeing as they now cannot trade Weber for a whole season.
I believe that David Poile had little choice but to match Weber's offer sheet because 14 years of Weber will most likely be more valuable than 4 Flyer late first round picks (I say late because with Weber there is little chance the Flyers miss the playoffs). If Nashville had of successfully resigned Ryan Suter then I would have been willing to let Weber walk, but since Suter has signed with Minnesota, Poile needed to keep Weber or risk losing the momentum Nashville has proudly built up until this point.
Patrick: While Nashville had to overpay to keep both Pekka Rinne and Shea Weber, they needed to keep both to stay relevant and retain fan support. Seeing Kevin Klein logging 25 minutes every night wouldn't have been pretty.
Philly obviously feels they need another top line defenceman so I wouldn't be surprised if they went after Dan Boyle. San Jose could use a shake-up, and Philadelphia are stacked with forwards.
Poile was in my bad books last week after he allowed Weber to sign the offer sheet, but he's back in my good books after re-signing the top dman in the game.
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