NASHVILLE, Tenn. — On Wednesday, the Nashville Predators welcomed forward Alex Radulov back to the fold after four years during which Radulov was suspended for violating the terms of his contract by playing in Russia instead of the NHL.
General manager David Poile, in a ceremony before practice at Bridgestone Arena, handed Radulov his old No. 47 jersey, explaining that some things had changed since Radulov last played for the Predators, such as the team's color scheme and logo.
The Predators, who entered the day fourth in the Western Conference, have nine regular-season games left and are poised for a potentially long playoff run. But questions linger. Some are answerable. Some are not. Some have yet to be determined.
Will his teammates accept him back? How will he fit in? Will Radulov sign beyond this season? How good is he?
Let's deal with those in order. The answer to the first is a rousing yes. Radulov, 25, could be spotted before practice wrestling with one former teammate. During practice, he chatted amiably with the others he played with the last time he was on the Predators in 2007-08 — Ryan Suter, Shea Weber, Martin Erat, David Legwand, Kevin Klein, Jordin Tootoo and Pekka Rinne.
"The great thing was it was a little playful day a little bit today," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "The leadership group was happy, and when your core group is excited about someone that's into your group, that's a good add. Sometimes you add sometimes, and players are like, 'All right.' But they're excited. To me that's the most exciting thing. He's brought excitement to that core group. It makes us better."
How will he fit in? To start off, Radulov is saying all the right things.
"It's good back to be back here," Radulov said at the morning press conference. "I feel good and just looking forward to helping the team to be better. It's a good team. I know it's a young team. I know some guys from it, and they're good friends of mine. I'll do whatever it takes to help the team to do better."
As far as how he fits in on the ice, that could be a work in progress. Trotz was asked if nine games are enough to get ready for the playoffs. File that under "yet to be determined."
"Ask that when the season's over," he said. "I don't think I can answer that now. One thing about chemistry and your team, sometimes you'll make a lot of changes, you see teams that make a lot of changes in the summer, like Florida for example, they do a tremendous amount in free agency and they get off to a good start. They seem to have a pretty good year going.
"You'll see teams that will add as many people, and it'll take them half a year to get going. So I don't really have the answer. I think the big thing the people in there (the locker room) are, they're good people and in Rads' case he's a player that has played here before, which is really helpful. . . . Hopefully, we put it together. And if we do, I think we have as good of a chance as anybody to do something in the playoffs."
Will Radulov re-sign in Nashville after he becomes a restricted free agent on July 1 or will the Predators find themselves in the NHL version of "Groundhog Day" with Radulov returning to the KHL, as has been rumored in the Russian media?
Unanswerable. Poile stated his desire to continue the relationship. Radulov seems ready to do so, also.
"Just talking to Alex, he says that he doesn't have a contract," Poile said. "He doesn't have a promise to go back and play there. It's our goal to have him stay here longer. No pressure right now. Let's play and make sure. It's got to be a fit, got to make sense. We'll see where it is. I don't think he has any obligations going forward."
Finally, how good is Radulov? In introducing him in the morning, Poile went through the player's lists of accomplishments: two-time KHL MVP, won a KHL championship, won an International Ice Hockey Federation world championship. He scored 25 goals in 50 games in the most recent KHL season, the equivalent of being a 40-goal scorer in the NHL's 82 games, which would rank him among the NHL's best.
In many descriptions of Radulov, he sounds much like another elite Russian NHL player, New Jersey's Ilya Kovalchuk who is starting to earn consideration by some for the Hart Trophy as MVP. Trotz talks about how passionate Radulov is, how he loves to win.
"Obviously, Ilya's a couple years older than Alex, so he looks up to Ilya and Ilya's a leader among the guys on their Russian national team," said agent Jay Grossman, who represents both players. "So it's natural for him to look at Ilya. I think they have a lot in common in terms of they're both bright, intelligent guys and they, for lack of a better term, they speak the same language."
Radulov would seem to have that same competitive streak as Kovalchuk to want to be one of the best players in the world. Weber, Nashville's captain, spoke about that on Wednesday.
"Knowing him, you know how good he wanted to be and he wanted to be one of the best players in the world," Weber said. "I think he's got the talent to do so. And now that he's back in the NHL, he's got a chance to show people how good he is."
Radulov admitted that was part of the reason for his return.
"I always thought about making comeback and making my return back to the NHL," he said. "It's a good league, and all the best players are playing here. In Russia, it's a good league, too, but I've been there for your years and missed the NHL a little bit."
On one of the walls in the bowels of Bridgestone Arena outside of where the players work out are posted the team's superlatives. They include most All-Star game reps and single-season records. Radulov holds the record for most goals by a rookie (18) and ranks eighth for the highest number of goals in a single season with the 26 he scored when he was 21 in 2007-08.
One would imagine that a player with such a competitive will would want to have his name plastered all over that wall. Trotz, in Radulov's return, believe he got "a more mature model."
"Which is, to me, great because he's more mature in everything," Trotz said. "He's bigger. He's smarter. He's more hockey savvy, with more poise. So, yeah, he's an improved version, which is great because he was a good version when he was here."
The story is just starting to unfold.
