from Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated,

Remember when it looked as though the Predators had secured their spot atop the Central Division with a bold pre-deadline trade that repatriated Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli from the Maple Leafs?

“He’s a top-four defenseman on pretty well any team right now,” Nashville GM David Poile gushed about Franson, who was the key to the deal. “He was always big and great on the power play. Now he’s much more of a well-rounded guy.”

Franson, a regular on Toronto’s top pair, was slated to play on the second unit with the Preds, adding the element of veteran depth that every contender craves. Instead, he’s become a spare part, or worse, on a team that’s stumbling to the finish line. In two of his past five games he’s been nailed to the bench for most of the third period after his failure to make simple plays led to opposition goals. In Saturday night’s 5-4 loss to Dallas it was his inability to clear a puck from the crease that allowed fourth liner Colton Sceviour to pick up the loose change and put the Preds in a 3–1 hole.

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