April 21, The Hockey News: Ellis will command a long-term contract worth at least $3 million a season, one would think, and it will require the Predators to swallow hard before making that offer. This is a team, after all, which rewarded Chris Mason with a $3 million deal for his play last season, which was so good that when the Predators were forced to strip-mine their organization last summer, they traded Tomas Vokoun to the Florida Panthers.

Mason didn't exactly prove to be the No. 1 goalie the Predators were seeking and signing Ellis to a similar, if not more lucrative, deal would require a leap of faith by Poile & Co. Not to mention the fact if Nashville was to pay Ellis on the same level as Mason, it'd be spending a total of $6 million on goaltenders. (Would they be overpaid in that case? Of course they would, because all goalies in the NHL are overpaid if you apply the laws of supply and demand. But hey, it's the going rate.)

That move would hardly put the Predators in a class by themselves, though. At least 10 teams will be using up $6 million or more in cap space on goalies next season and, after all, this is a team that is willing to give up $4.5 million in cap room to David Legwand, who is essentially a third-line center.

What the Predators have in Ellis is a very good goalie who is about to enter his prime. And while - with the exception of guys such as Dominik Hasek and Martin Brodeur - fans generally don't pay good money to watch goalies stop pucks, they do pay to watch teams win. And with Ellis in their net, the Preds give themselves the best chance to do that.

Should Ellis hit the UFA market July 1, there will be no shortage of suitors. It will be a shock if the Ottawa Senators don't think long and hard about Ellis, and the Red Wings - who will be looking for goaltending next season - just had a front-row seat for Ellis's playoff show. The Atlanta Thrashers and possibly the Los Angeles Kings will likely be looking at him, as will the Washington Capitals and Colorado Avalanche if their No. 1 goalies bolt for other teams.

Signing Ellis long-term won't guarantee the Predators any sustained playoff success or the future of the franchise in Nashville, but what it will do is show its fans and the rest of the NHL it will not allow other teams to pick its carcass the way they did last summer.

The Tennessean's John Glennon says that the Ellis situation is the Predators' most pressing off-season question:

April 21, Tennessean: This promises to be one of the most challenging situations facing the Predators. Dan Ellis came out of nowhere to capture the starter's job and wound up leading the league in save percentage. He was especially strong down the stretch and in the playoffs, showing an ability to elevate his game under pressure.

Ellis could become an unrestricted free agent if he's not re-signed by the end of June, and it would be hard to believe the Predators would just let him walk after this season's performance.

But there are complications. Chris Mason is under contract for the next two seasons and, unlike in the NFL, NHL teams can't just cut players and stop paying them. In addition, talented prospect Pekka Rinne appears ready for the NHL, and he won't be able to be sent down to Milwaukee without clearing waivers next season.

So assuming the Predators do re-sign Ellis -- and figuring out what kind of contract he'd get based on one great year would be another challenge -- would the Predators try to trade Mason or even consider buying out his contract?

Might they start next season with three goalies on the roster? There doesn't appear to be a simple solution.

The Winnipeg Sun's Ken Wiebe looked at the Ellis situation from another angle, defending the "long bomb" goal he gave up to Nicklas Lidstrom, which he feels should not become the Predators' goalie's lasting legacy:

April 21, Slam Sports: Dan Ellis has been the protagonist in many highlight packages during the first-round series between the Nashville Predators and Detroit Red Wings. Make no mistake, Ellis is the main -- if not the only -- reason the Predators forced the series with the top-ranked Red Wings to six games.

Unfortunately for the man who transformed from a minor league journeyman to a bona fide No. 1 goalie in the NHL this season, one of the few mistakes he made in the series will be shown over and over again. Nightly sports, morning sports, plays of the week, blooper sets and on Youtube.
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Lidstrom carried the puck back and unleashed his secret weapon from just beyond centre. This wasn't the dreaded knuckle-puck you may have seen during Disney's Might Ducks movies, no it was even more powerful and came in the form of a sharp dropping slapper that took one bounce off the ice and went straight to the shelf over a fallen Ellis.

Now it's easy to say that Ellis should have taken a few strides out of his crease to catch or block the disc before it bounced. That may be true, but I'd like to see Lidstrom take the same shot in a game situation and make it bounce the same way. This was a 1-in-10 chance, at best.

This was simply an unlucky bounce, but that unfortunate turn of events turned into the game-winning goal and the Preds were unable to recover, losing 3-0 before their home crowd. Don't think for a second that Ellis cost his team the series. It was a lack of production from the top-end talent that was the difference.

The only parts of Wiebe's argument I agree with are two simple points: Lidstrom's well-known for his ability to put pucks off the back boards to give his forwards "fortunate bounces," and he's taken more than a few flutterball shots from centre that have nearly gone in. He received a little bit of "puck luck," but the shot was calculated and practiced. Second, regarding the series? The biggest reason the Red Wings won is because they outworked the Predators, and were able to overcome sustained production from the "top-end talent" on the Predators' blueline.