Tag: Nashville Predators

The Predators are taking an incredibly fun gamble after their Steven Stamkos-led free agency windfall

No matter what happens, the Predators are going to be fun this season.

If there’s a deeper strategy to Nashville Predators general manager Barry Trotz’s 2024 free agency plan than “just sign all the marquee players,” it’s “age be darned.”

A year after signing pricey veterans like Ryan O’Reilly, Gustav Nyquist and Luke Schenn, Trotz doubled down on the “old” guys on Monday by a historic haul of franchise talents like Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei on multi-year contracts.

Stamkos is an all-time NHL talent, having won two Stanley Cups with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Marchessault is coming off a career year in goals and won the Conn Smythe Trophy after his former Vegas Golden Knights took home the 2023 Stanley Cup. Skjei is finishing a five-season stint with a Carolina Hurricanes team that regularly contended for a Cup run.

2024 NHL free agency winners (Predators) and losers (Golden Knights) from Day 1

The youngest of those players is Skjei at 30. Stamkos is 34, and Marchessault is 33. The franchise faces for Nashville ahead of Monday’s windfall were O’Reilly, Roman Josi (34), Filip Forsberg (29) and Juuse Saros (29).

It’s hard to fathom the Predators would be in this position after an aggressive fire sale at the 2023 NHL trade deadline, one that jettisoned a franchise pillar in Mattias Ekholm and useful talents like Tanner Jeannot, Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund and Luke Kunin.

That talent purge was former general manager David Poile’s final chance to reshape the roster for a possible rebuild, one that would clear the path for young prospects to enter the system and take their lumps on a team that looked nowhere near Stanley Cup contention. Forsberg, Josi and Saros continued to play at a high level, but a youth movement felt destined for Smashville.

Well, Trotz must’ve felt that any youth influx was all for naught without reliable elder statesmen, and he’s taken colossal measures to entrench the Predators in a fiercely win-now position.

To be blunt, you don’t go out and sign great players on the back nines of their career like Stamkos and Marchessault in particular without clear aspirations to bring home Lord Stanley’s Cup. These are not moves you make lightly, neither is cutting a player like Matt Duchene outright last offseason that allowed him to sign with a division rival in the Dallas Stars.

Trotz, the former Predators coach-turned-general manager, clearly wants to construct a team in his image, one filled with quality veterans with extensive Stanley Cup experience to finally bring Nashville over the hump for a championship in short order. Rather than strip down the sheets and remake the bed, Trotz is banking on a bunch of new pillows making this a comfortable place to sleep.

It’s not that the Predators don’t have enticing young talent at their disposal. Luke Evangelista is a star in the making at forward, netting 16 goals and 23 assists in his first full-time NHL season. Tommy Novak provides roughly the same impact, as he’s coming off a nice 18-goal, 27-assist season for Nashville.

The team has turned Jeremy Lauzon from a so-so defensive prospect to one of the most reliable hitters in the league, and Alexandre Carrier has developed to be a very quality depth defenseman for the organization. Dante Fabbro is still working through his highs and lows on defense, but there’s untapped potential there, too. 

Also consider the promising young players in the Smashville pipeline, who include winger Philip Tomasino, defenseman Spencer Stastney, center Juuso Pärssinen, winger Zachary L’Heureux, winger Joakim Kemell, defenseman Ryan Ufko and winger Fedor Svechkov, just to name a few. These guys may all be at least somewhat close to full-time NHL reps, with Tomasino, Pärssinen and Stastney already earning some limited playing experience.

Trotz’s gamble is two-fold. He’s trying to maximize the older star power of his existing roster with even more older star power while laying the groundwork for a winning culture under coach Andrew Brunette for young players to enter once it’s their time in the NHL.

For establishing a consistent winner, that’s not a bad strategy at all for any professional sports team with a farm system. For immediate investment into winning the Stanley Cup right now, have the Predators done enough to contend with the best teams in the NHL?

Rather than banking everything on an Connor McDavid/Auston Matthews/Sam Reinhart/Nathan McKinnon-type generational talent, the team is hoping it can score in bunches with proven veterans and overwhelm their opponents with elite goaltending and gobs of stingy experience. That may well help Nashville make a deep playoff push in the seasons to come, but it’s not guaranteed to work out as well as hoped.

Also consider that elite goaltending prospect Yaroslav Askarov could be traded at any minute since the team has Saros in his prime (with a new deal), and that could net Nashville an equally talented prospect or a ready-now veteran.

No matter what, this approach is still a gamble for Nashville, as Trotz is depending on the veterans to push hard against Father Time while hoping the pipeline prospects can fill in the gaps in the next couple of seasons where need be.

Monday’s free agency windfall puts the Predators firmly in the conversation for the most interesting and fun teams in the NHL going into this coming season. Adding a generational talent like Stamkos will do that by itself.

Will the hodgepodge of older stars and tantalizing youth spark Smashville to its first Stanley Cup, or has Trotz overplayed his hand on adding so many older players on the downward slope to a team that really needed to start over and further embrace its younger players?

The only safe prediction is that this is going to be incredibly fun to watch play out.

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Steven Stamkos’ 3 best free agent landing spots (Nashville!) as he prepares to leave the Lightning

Where will Stamkos land as he becomes an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career?

It sure looks like Tampa Bay Lightning captain and superstar Steven Stamkos is headed to unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career on Monday.

According to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, the 34-year-old isn’t close to signing a deal to remain with the only team he’s ever known with Stamkos’ agent Don Meehan texting LeBrun “He will be a free agent on July 1″.

Stammer played 79 games last season, scoring at least 40 goals for the seventh time in his career to go along with 41 assists. There are plenty of teams who would love that kind of production, even if the center eats up 10 percent of a roster’s cap space.

The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn projects Stamkos will cost interested suitors an AAV of $8.9 million. So which teams can afford him? Let’s break down Stammer’s most-likely landing spot.

All odds via DraftKings Sportsbook

1. Tampa Bay Lightning (+110)

Ok, listen. Until he’s not a member of the Lightning, I have a hard time imaging Stamkos anywhere else. He’s a future Hall of Famer and helped bring two Stanley Cups back to Tampa Bay. It’s tough to let that walk out the door.

The Bolts enter this offseason with a projected $5.3 million in cap space per CapFriendly, but let’s not put it past GM Julien BriseBois to get creative to keep his captain.

2. Detroit Red Wings (+400)

Whether or not this was part of the Yzerplan all along kind of feels irrelevant. Detroit has plenty of cap space and a fan base desperate to return to the playoffs for the first time in nine years after snapping a streak of 25 consecutive postseason appearances.

Per CapFriendly, the Wings will have a projected $32.7 million available this offseason as it figures out what to do with UFA’s including Patrick Kane, David Perron, James Reimer and Shayne Gostisbehere  — not to mention RFA’s Joseph Veleno and Lucas Raymond.

It’s easy to imagine Stamkos feeding Alex DeBrincat on a top line, it’s just a matter of what Steve Yzerman thinks this team’s ceiling is over the next few years as Stammer gets older.

3. Nashville Predators (+700)

The Predators averaged the 10th-best goals for per game last season (3.24) and the 16th-best power play (21.6 percent). Stamkos would be an instant improvement to both numbers while putting the forward in an extremely-winnable Central Division.

Nashville is expected to have $26.3 million in cap space as Anthony Beauvillier, Jason Zucker, Tyson Barrie and Alexandre Carrier become UFAs. That’s more than enough to get Stamkos to the Music City.

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5 incredible Yaroslav Askarov saves from the Admirals’ stunning 18-game AHL win streak

The Milwaukee Admirals are tearing up the AHL, and stellar goalie Yaroslav Askarov is a big reason why.

The Milwaukee Admirals have been the best story in hockey this season you might not be aware of, as the Nashville Predators’ AHL affiliate has won 18-straight games, the second-best ever streak in the league.

Part of that incredible run has been fueled by young goalie Yaroslav Askarov, who has been playing some of the best hockey of anyone in either the NHL or AHL as of late. He’s stood firm for five shutout wins since Jan. 5.

With rumors flying about the Predators possibly trading goalie Juuse Saros, Askarov could be the next star goalie once the Preds call him up permanently from Milwaukee to man the pipes in Smashville.

Check out some of Askarov’s stellar highlights during this impressive Admirals win streak and get excited about when he brings his acrobatic, stuntman-ready goalie work to the big leagues on a full-time basis.

Really, these highlights are stunners. We’re so excited for Askarov’s future NHL days.

Predators’ defenseman Roman Josi made an incredible glove save (that should’ve been a penalty)

JOSI

Longtime Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi pulled off an incredibly rare feat during a Saturday matinee against the Dallas Stars on Saturday.

While trying to protect the net from a Stars’ Wyatt Johnson shot, Josi swatted away the puck away with his hand for an incredible glove save. His maneuver prevented what could’ve been an easy Dallas goal and reinforced how talented he is on the ice.

Josi’s save hypothetically should have triggered a Stars penalty shot from some perspectives since he closed the glove on the puck, but the refs decided to let this one slide.

Instead of it giving Dallas another easy chance at a goal, it gave Josi one of the coolest highlights of the day.

Dallas fans might be enraged by Josi getting away with one here, but the highlight still stands as one of the best things you’ll see in NHL action this holiday weekend.

Josi has always been such a reliable defenseman for the Predators, and moments like this show exactly why.

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Austin Watson deserves an NHL suspension for nailing Jeremy Lauzon with a reckless, pointless slap shot

This was so reckless.

I don’t honestly know if you can point to motive when it comes to a slap shot in hockey that could be aimed at a player. The point is usually to hit the puck as hard as you can so that it gets through traffic and past a netminder.

But in this example? It feels like an exception.

At the end of the Nashville Predators’ 5-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, the clock was ticking down. The Lightning’s Austin Watson reared back and hit a slapshot from his own zone … and it nailed the Preds’ Jeremy Lauzon. The defenseman went down, looked hurt and was furious, while his teammates went after Watson, and rightfully so.

Why would Watson hit that kind of slapper when the game was well out of hand? And with Lauzon right in front of him?!

Writer Alex Daugherty said he heard Watson tried to visit Lauzon to see if he was OK. And Predators head coach Andrew Brunette was mad for good reason:

Maybe motive isn’t the point and perhaps it wasn’t aimed at Lauzon. But like with high sticking, you’re responsible for your actions whether they were deliberate or not. There’s no place for this.

The NHL needs to suspend Watson for this to make a point: If a game is out of hand and the clock is ticking down, a simple lifting of the puck into the air will do just fine.

The Predators buying out Matt Duchene furthers their dramatic roster revamp

Barry Trotz is already making his presence known in his return to the Predators.

The Nashville Predators had already taken a sledgehammer to their roster this year, but Friday’s latest blow might’ve been the most shocking.

Rather than let him play out more of his expensive contract, the team placed center Matt Duchene on unconditional waivers with the intent to buy out the remainder of his deal.

The Predators will reportedly eat $19 million over the next six years for Duchene’s buyout, another sign of just how determined the team is to clean house and start fresh under new general manager (and former coach) Barry Trotz.

Duchene will enter NHL free agency as one of its most desirable prospects, and the Predators will have about $24 million to spend once the market opens on Saturday (fourth-best in the NHL).

Duchene is just the latest in Nashville’s roster purge, as the team traded Ryan Johansen to the Colorado Avalanche earlier this month.

Along with Johansen and Duchene, the Predators parted ways with guys like Mattias Ekholm, Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter and Tanner Jeannot ahead of the NHL’s trade deadline this past winter.

That’s not even mentioning the in-season waiving of Eeli Tolvanen, who landed (and blossomed) with the Seattle Kraken, or the firing of head coach John Hynes this summer for former Florida Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette.

It’s an eye-opening amount of players that have been jettisoned from Music City, as last year’s starting Nashville lineup is largely gone.

Trotz will officially take over as general manager for the retiring David Poile on Saturday, and it looks increasingly like he’ll continue to rework Nashville’s roster in a major retooling.

The revamp has been so dramatic in Nashville that the team reportedly pondered trading elite goaltending prospect Yaroslav Askarov to move into the 2023 NHL Draft’s top few picks this week.

It genuinely feels like anything is possible for Nashville going ahead, making them one of the NHL’s most unpredictable teams this offseason.

Could the team keep Askarov and trade one of the NHL’s best goalies in Juuse Saros to land a top-six scoring option? Does the team have a veteran Tyson Barrie in its plans after acquiring him from the Edmonton Oilers at the trade deadline? What about another vet like Ryan McDonagh?

Only team captain Roman Josi and longtime offensive stalwart Filip Forsberg feel safe in terms of veteran players on Nashville’s roster.

With plenty more moves to come, Trotz looks like he’s going to shape the team in his image as he finds a way to get Nashville back to the Stanley Cup Finals. It’ll be fascinating to see if his aggressive strategy is exactly what the Predators need to really get back in contention, or if it’s a bridge too far.

Retiring Predators GM David Poile got the coolest send-off at the 2023 NHL Draft

Retiring Predators GM David Poile got the coolest send-off during Wednesday’s 2023 NHL Draft.

Retiring Nashville Predators general manager David Poile got plenty of love during this week’s 2023 NHL Draft.

As the draft was being held in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena, Poile went through his very last draft process with the Predators before he retires at the end of the month.

Former Nashville coach Barry Trotz is taking Poile’s place as the team’s general manager.

Known for pulling off quite a trade, Poile’s final trade with Nashville wound up being an incredibly special one.

In the draft’s seventh round, Poile swapped picks with New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald, who was Nashville’s very first captain.

With the pick, Poile selected right winger Aiden Fink out of Brooks (AJHL).

After the pick, Poile got a very well-deserved standing ovation from everyone in attendance at Wednesday’s draft rounds.

It’d be a moment for a lifetime in the building Poile helped bring hockey to, and he’ll undoubtedly go down as one of the most important figures in Predators (and NHL) history.

Here’s why the Predators might’ve traded for a player that could be gone in a week

The Predators traded for a player that will be a free agent in a week. Why might it make sense?

The Nashville Predators made a fascinating trade with the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, acquiring a player they may lose in a week.

The Predators announced that longtime center Ryan Johansen had been traded to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for veteran forward Alex Galchenyuk.

At first glance, that just seems like a player-for-player swap between a team trying to get back to playoff contention (Nashville) and a team trying to win another Stanley Cup (Colorado).

However, the deal becomes a bit confusing once you realize that Galchenyuk’s contract expires on July 1, the start of NHL free agency.

What gives? Why would Nashville trade a veteran starter like Johansen for the rights to a player that might not sign with the Predators?

As the old saying goes, follow the money.

The Predators are entering a new era under Barry Trotz, the team’s former coach who is now its general manager.

Trotz’s first big move of his tenure looks like it’s a very peculiar salary dump, one that still sees the Predators taking on half of Johansen’s contract for the next two seasons. It’ll save Nashville $8 million over the next two years while Colorado pays the other $8 million.

Teams rarely just trade a player to a team without any return, as that would just be a gift. From 2013-19, Galchenyuk scored double-digit goals a season before tapering off during the 2019-20 season.

Galchenyuk only played in 11 games for the Avalanche in 2022-23 with no goals or points to show for it. However, he did score 16 goals in 42 regular season games for the AHL’s Colorado Eagles last season.

If the Predators want to re-sign Galchenyuk, they’ll have first dibs as they hold his rights for the next week. However, if they let him walk, this is the rare case where a team traded a player to dump his salary without anything in return but salary cap space. It’d basically just be a very elaborate release.

There has to be some sort of return on an NHL trade, and a player’s rights for one week’s time does technically count.

Could the Predators have at least gotten a prospect? It’s fair to wonder. Could Galchenyuk wind up signing with Nashville and working on his comeback effort? It’s very possible.

At the very least, Galchenyuk walking just means the Preds saved some cap space and got Johansen to a contender with the trade. It could be a show of goodwill for a veteran player like Johansen that could reverberate positively in the locker room for other Nashville players as Trotz gets going in his new role.

For now, this is the most curious of NHL trades, one that nets the Avalanche a reliable offensive veteran and the Preds some salary cap space for possible moves in the future… and a player that might be gone in a week.

Predators legend Pekka Rinne received a beautiful statue tribue outside of Nashville’s arena

The Nashville Predators unveiled a beautiful statue for former goalie Pekka Rinne on Saturday.

A monument to the greatest Nashville Predator of all time will forever live outside the team’s arena.

On Saturday, the organization revealed a statue honoring former Predators goalie Pekka Rinne right in front of Bridgestone Arena.

The goalie led the franchise to its lone Western Conference title and Stanley Cup appearance in 2017.

After retiring in 2021, Rinne’s No. 35 was retired by the team in 2022 and was hoisted to Bridgestone Arena’s rafters along with the franchise’s other banners.

A big crowd of Predators fans gathered outside of the arena ahead of Nashville’s afternoon tilt against the Seattle Kraken as the statue was unveiled.

Retiring Predators general manager David Poile spoke ahead of the unveiling, thanking the goalie for all he had done for the franchise.

As for Rinne, he maintained his patented sense of humor while taking in the special Saturday festivities.

It’s not often NHL goalies get a statue unveiled for them outside of where they used to play, but that’s just how much Rinne meant and continues to mean to the Predators franchise. It’s a fitting tribute to a team legend.

Nashville’s sky-high trade haul from Tampa Bay for Tanner Jeannot stunned the NHL world

This was A LOT for an unproven player.

With the NHL trade deadline on the way, the Nashville Predators are raking in the draft picks after sending young forward Tanner Jeannot to the Tampa Bay Lightning. (Check out Mary Clarke’s comprehensive tracker on many of the deals coming through.)

With the Lightning trying to fortify its offense in a treacherous Eastern Conference, the team was willing to send the Preds a king’s ransom for adding Jeannot to the rotation.

After a standout rookie season in 2021-22, Jeannot had cooled a bit for Nashville leading up to his trade. He’s played in 56 games so far this season, notching five goals and nine assists. Jeannot has also posted a 5.7 percent shooting rate lately.

In exchange for Jeannot, Tampa Bay sent retiring general manager David Poile and Nashville a 2025 first-round pick, a 2024 second-round pick, a 2023 third-round pick, a 2023 fourth-round pick, a 2023 third-round pick and young defenseman Cal Foote.

Lightning vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois defended the trade for Jeannot by assessing the risk of draft picks compared to the promise of a young player with experience.

While BriseBois has certainly earned the benefit of the doubt after leading his franchise to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021, the hefty haul for Jeannot still earned some dropped jaws for NHL fans and beyond.

Although, if Tampa Bay pushes ahead in the Eastern Conference and Jeannot plays a big role, nobody will be doubting the price then.