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 11 After a brief hiatus, we are back with another installment of Hockey Talk. During my time away, I traveled back to Minnesota, where I was able to see Hockey Day Minnesota. This yearly celebration of the sport showcases games from the high school, college, and pro level, including an outdoor high school game on a day in which the temperatures were below zero. The popularity of hockey has seen an ebb and flow of sorts the past few seasons, but it is only going up in Minnesota. Known as the state of hockey, Minnesotans relish in the sport of hockey and its continued development as seen in their program sales. At each home game for the Wild, a youth hockey program sells the game programs and takes all of the money back for gear and other needs. For this year?s game, the Wild played host to the struggling New York Islanders. The Wild ended up winning 4-3 in overtime despite lackluster play throughout. In the end, though, Minnesota is one of those places all hockey fans should go. As my cousin Jeremy told me: it isn?t Canada, but it?s the closet thing we have in the United States. 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.