The
Nashville Predators have strengthened their squad with the acquisition of the
veteran defenseman Hal Gill from the Montreal Canadians.
The
36-year-old has a wealth of experience having spent the last 14 seasons in the NHL; many watching NHL online over the years will relate to Gill as being almost omnipresent in the Montreal team.
He has
scored 36 goals and had 143 assists in 1,047 regular-season games with the
Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Canadians, as
well as making 105 appearances in the playoffs.
Gill
featured in back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals with the Penguins in 2008 and 2009
and was part of the Pens' top shut-down pairing in 2009 when Pittsburgh won the
competition.
The
Predators’ President of Hockey Operations/General Manager, David Poile, said of
the high-profile signing: “Hal Gill brings our team a number of elements -
size, penalty-killing ability, depth on defense and playoff experience.
“He has
won a Stanley Cup and played a combined 69 playoff games over the last four
years, experience that significantly benefits our team.”
Gill was
drafted 207th overall (eighth round) by Boston in the 1993 Entry Draft, and
played for eight seasons with the Bruins (1997-2006) before going on to star
for Toronto (2006-08), Pittsburgh (2007-09) and Montreal.
The
Predators are enjoying a successful season and have won 33 of their 57 games so
far, the sixth best record in the NHL. They are a team on the up having signed
goaltender Pekka Rinne to a seven-year $49million deal in November. It is the
largest contract awarded by the Predators in their history and made Rinne the
highest-paid goaltender in the league.
Last
season they reached the playoffs, only to be beaten 4-2 by the Vancouver
Canucks in the second round after earlier knocking out the Anaheim Ducks; these stats make them a good pick for those wanting to bet on hockey.
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