Welcome to the newest addition to the hockey coverage here at RealGM with our new hockey blog called Hockey Talk. Running on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Hockey Talk will examine player and team trends as well as take a more in-depth look at the game. This is an interactive project so feel free to email your opinions to Douglas.Benton@realgm.com and your thoughts may just appear in this space. February 4 Over the weekend, the Nashville Predators signed right-winger J.P. Dumont to a four-year contract worth $16 million. The signing gives the Predators control of one of their best forwards until he is 33 in an effort to keep their best players in town once he hits his peak performance. Dumont has had a really solid year with 18 goals and 27 assists with a +8 rating while playing in all of his team?s 53 games. For his career, Dumont has scored at least 20 goals five times coming into this season although he has never scored over 23. Nashville is currently in the eighth spot with 59 points but definitely need on-ice leadership the rest of this season and beyond. The franchise as a whole has floundered in the playoffs and has lacked continuity both on and off the ice. The deal works for Nashville because it feeds some of these needs at an affordable price while also not leaving them liable for a steep downturn common with long term contracts. For Dumont, he gets stability in the prime of his career while still getting paid for his talents. He and Jason Arnott are a strong pair in the Western Conference.