While the Nashville Predators continue to mull over the decision of how to handle Shea Weber's decision to sign a 14-year, $110 million offer sheet with the Philadelphia Flyers, the New York Islanders have a problem of their own.
Isles defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky, who was acquired in June from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, has filed a grievance through the NHL Players Association to block the trade, attempting to use a no-trade clause in his contract to block the deal.
Visnovsky's contract, which expires after the 2012-13 season, was originally signed in 2008 with the Edmonton Oilers, but Visnovsky opted not to use his no-trade clause to block a trade to the Ducks for Ryan Whitney and a sixth-round draft pick in March of 2010. The Ducks are set to oppose Visnovsky in arbitration, and will likely argue that Visnovsky invalidated his no-trade clause when he chose not to use it two years ago.
If the Ducks are successful, Visnovsky will remain with the Islanders, but the 35-year-old Slovakian has made it clear that he doesn't want to be on Long Island any more than Weber wants to be in Nashville now that Suter has left for the Minnesota Wild.
The truth is that the Predators hardly deserve to be lumped in with the Islanders. Nashville has seven playoff appearances in the last eight season compared to one for the Islanders, has consistently outdrawn the Islanders in terms of both average attendance and capacity during that time, and has created a unique "Hockeytonk" culture that may be the most underrated atmosphere in the NHL. The fact remains, however, that in a summer where Nashville's top two skaters were on the market, both have chosen to sign with other teams (although Weber can still be locked up in Nashville if the Predators opt to match the Flyers' offer).
No matter what the NHL tries to do, there are always going to be limits to competitive balance within the league. There are always going to be places where players don't want to play, justifiably or not, and those distinctions don't change easily, which makes competitive balance issues in the NHL very hard to sort out.
That isn't to say that change isn't possible. The Minnesota Wild certainly put themselves on the map as a franchise this summer by drawing in both Suter and former New Jersey Devils captain Zach Parise (a Minnesota native), and the Edmonton Oilers made a splash when they signed free agent defenseman Justin Schultz out of the University of Wisconsin (a player who, as it happens, decided he didn't want to be in Anaheim with the team that originally drafted him). And, of course, as bad as things are at the moment for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens, there's no reason to believe that they won't be back at some point. At the same time, though, there are certain "have nots" in the NHL that face a very steep uphill climb if they hope to compete with the "haves," and the Predators are on the verge of joining the Islanders in that category.
In all likelihood, Visnovsky will find himself on Long Island this fall, and there's a very good case for the Predators to match the Flyers' offer for Weber. Nonetheless, the current situations the Islanders and Predators face are poor signals for their future prospects.
