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Preds roster set for opener?

According to the NHL’s media website, the Nashville Predators have their opening night roster for the 2013-14 season.

The 13 forwards on the active roster (as well as Viktor Stalberg who’s on injured reserve) are below.

# FORWARD
57 Gabriel Bourque
16 Rich Clune
7 Matt Cullen
12 Mike Fisher
9 Filip Forsberg
28 Paul Gaustad
26 Matt Hendricks
27 Patric Hornqvist
11 David Legwand
24 Eric Nystrom
15 Craig Smith
13 Nick Spaling
25 Viktor Stalberg (IR)
33 Colin Wilson

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The Preds are opting to carry seven defensemen to start the year with both Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis making the cut. Below is the full list of blueliners.

# DEFENSEMAN
64 Victor Bartley
42 Mattias Ekholm
4 Ryan Ellis
3 Seth Jones
59 Roman Josi
8 Kevin Klein
6 Shea Weber

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Finally, no surprises between the pipes as both Pekka Rinne and Carter Hutton make up the goaltending depth chart in Music City.

# GOALTENDER
30 Carter Hutton
35 Pekka Rinne

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It is notable that, despite the limit of 23, there are only 22 active players on the Nashville roster. Because he’s on the IR, winger Stalberg does not count against them and, therefore, they could have kept Taylor Beck with the big club if they wanted. This suggests that there may be someone on waivers (Buffalo’s Luke Adam?) that they may try to claim tomorrow. Or maybe they’re leaving some flexibility on the roster in case someone they like appears on the waiver wire Sunday. Or perhaps free agent invite Simon Moser did make the team after all but they’re still working on a contract.

Either way, we’ll know soon enough. All NHL teams must submit their 23-man rosters by Monday at 4:00 p.m. Central.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Fuqua (used with permission)