Predators Focused on Retooling Not Rebuilding
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Sirius XM NHL Network Morning Skate with Scott Laughlin and Gord Stellick and was asked about the Nashville Predators’ plan moving forward.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
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Gord Stellick: So, we’ve got a trade freeze going on now. And of course, I really think things are going to heat up heading towards the trade deadline, sooner rather than later, in some cases. And the weird one, when I just talked about the what with you, about the Western Conference playoff race. I fully expected the Nashville Predators to be a part of it. And they had the strange thing that was a couple of years ago when they were sellers, they all of a sudden got good, like they banged some pretty good futures draft picks, you name it.
They made a few moves (Philip) Tomasino, (Alexandre) Carrier being traded. I’m really curious what they’re going to do? Like, are they going to cut bait early? And, like, could Ryan O’Reilly go somewhere again, like, I don’t know. It’s just that that’s kind of an intriguing situation for me. And what, what, where? What direction do you think Barry Trotz is going to go?
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Dave Pagnotta: “Yeah, I would be surprised to be if he goes that way. I mean, unless he’s completely blown away with the hell of an offer. Obviously, that goes without saying, but he seems to like at least the core pieces. The problem is there’s not enough depth, quality, or depth within that group. They’ve been looking for a 2C since the preseason, before the start of the season, when they realized, Oh, we may have an issue here.
We may not have somebody. They like (Steven) Stamkos on the left, (Jonathan) Marchessault) on the right. They tried a couple of guys, a few guys up the middle, and it just didn’t work. And they started their search at that point. And maybe that was a tell, hindsight being what it is, maybe it was a tell that, oh, maybe this season might not go according to plan.
I don’t think anybody anticipated them to go in this direction. But I think from the Nashville side of things, you don’t have too many pieces to sell off in terms of the rental market. Gustav Nyquist is on an expiring deal. He hasn’t had the season, certainly he had last year. But if he can revive his offense a little bit, that could be somebody in play for the Predators going toward the trade market in terms of moving things out.
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Other than that they’re focused on next season and trying to find deals that are going to accommodate them moving forward. And Barry Trotz spoke last week and said, I’m going to have to, if I can’t find it via trade, I’m going to be just as aggressive as I was last summer, this coming summer, in the free agent market. So it’s not a rebuild threat that he had a couple months ago, I think that was more so to spark the team.
It didn’t work, and he’s acknowledged that it’s going to be more of a retool than anything going into next season. But his eyes are already focused on 25-26 and going from there, I think I agree with you in terms of certain teams that need to start accepting their fate and focus on next year and make some big moves, get some picks, and then the tide can shift pretty quickly if you do it right.
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I’m curious about the New York Islanders in that respect, because they’ve got some pieces that they can sell off if they don’t gain any traction and gain some first-round picks for a couple of their guys in Kyle Palmieri and Brock Nelson, and then be aggressive in the free agent market, and then all of a sudden, this team could be right back in the thick of things and in the Metro next season.
It doesn’t sound like Nashville will go in that direction, just because they don’t have those types of assets to move.”
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