July 19, 2012 10:04pm EDTJuly 19, 2012 9:20pm EDTShea Weber wants to play for the Philadelphia Flyers, would accept playing for the Nashville Predators and said no thanks to the New York Rangers.

Staff report

Published on Jul. 19, 2012

Jul. 19, 2012

Shea Weber wants to play for the Philadelphia Flyers, would accept playing for the Nashville Predators and said no thanks to the New York Rangers.

The 26-year-old Norris Trophy finalist signed a 14-year, $110 million offer sheet with the Flyers on Thursday. Nashville has seven days to match.

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"We didn't go actively looking for an offer sheet," said Jarrett Bousquet, Weber's agent. "But when we spoke with Philadelphia, it seemed to be a right fit there."

Meanwhile, Weber would fill the void left by Philadelphia defenseman Chris Pronger's absence. Pronger—a key cog in the Flyers' run to the 2010 Stanley Cup finals as a No. 7 seed—has been battling concussion problems and missed most of last season. He finished with one goal in 13 games as the Flyers bowed out in the second round to New Jersey after a promising, 103-point regular season.

The Flyers were exposed on defense in that five-game, Round 2 loss to the rival Devils, and since have lost defenseman Matt Carle, who snared a six-year, $33 million deal with Tampa Bay.

Weber would fix a lot of problems for a Flyers team that allowed 44 goals in just 11 postseason games. He is a three-time All Star who helped Canada win gold in the 2010 Olympics, and is also is the mainstay of the Predators' defensive-minded approach. He is coming off a season in which he turned in a career-best plus-21 rating. Weber was sixth among NHL defensemen in scoring, as well, last year.

He also had a career-high 22 points on the power play, and led all NHL defensemen with 10 power-play goals.

"I think at the point, he's really in a good situation," Bousquet said. "I think he wants to explore his options. I don't think he would sign an offer sheet unless you were hoping you were able to go to that team."

Weber averaged 29 minutes, 9 seconds of ice time last season, second on the team to his former partner, Ryan Suter, who signed a 13-year, $98 million deal with Minnesota on July 4.

"Things changed in Nashville July 4," Bousquet said. "The next four or five days we had to look at different options."

Asked by TSN Radio if Weber would've signed the offer sheet had Suter re-signed in Nashville, Bousquet's response: "It's tough to know the answer to that, but I don't think we'd be having this discussion, at this point."

Now, what if the Predators, as remains highly possible, match the offer?

"If they were to match, as soon as you hit the ice, these guys are after one thing and that's winning hockey games," Bousquet told TSN. "So I don't foresee there being a problem in that regard.

One team that certainly isn't going to wind up with Weber is the New York Rangers—though that's not without effort on their end.

“(Weber) is a small-town guy and (New York) is a huge city,” Bousquet told ESPNNewYork.com. “With New York, it was nothing personal. He thought everything, from the ownership to the hockey operations to the coaching was unbelievable. (Philadelphia) just seemed to be a better fit at this time in his career.”

Part of that fit, according to the New York Post, is the fact that most of the Flyers live in suburban New Jersey. Most of the Rangers, on the other hand, live in Manhattan. Weber, the Post reports, was worried living in Westchester County would have isolated him from his prospective teammates.