Sportsnet: Nashville Predators GM Barry Trotz on the Jeff Marek Show when asked how they will approach their trade deadline.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Marek: “I’m curious, you know, in Nashville in advance of the trade deadline, like once we get past the All-Star here, I’m, I think everyone’s looking at NHL rosters and saying okay, what’s this manager thinking? What’s that manager thinking?
Whenever I get around to Nashville, I kind of get a couple of different minds here. In that and I just mentioned this a couple of seconds ago, you know, you can kind of, you know, depending on which direction you want to go, for managers that are out there that want players for a push, or someone a little more veteran, you can accommodate.
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And as you mentioned earlier for teams that are looking for, you know, the, to begin a winning cycle, let’s just say, you can accommodate them as well. How do you approach this trade deadline?”
Trotz: “I think I’m sort of preparing for both. You know, going into this year, I thought it was going to be a real difficult year and you know, at one point we were 5-10 I think and, you know, here we’re sitting in the, in a final playoff spot. So I’m probably, I’m preparing for both.
I think the team where we sit and really the players that will determine that. I would say, I don’t think we’re a team that would say “I’m all in” because of the fact that I think we have a lot of growth. But I really want, if we’re at the at the trade deadline and we’re right there, I have no problem adding something to our team. Because these guys have done a really good job of, you know, keeping us in, in the playoff hunt and all that and I would like to help that because that group.
But if we’re falling out and if it’s not happening then, you know, I’ll have some assets that are, everywhere from affordable I would say to short-term. Because we have a lot of, you know, I look at our forward group, I think I have, you know, probably six or seven guys that are under a million dollars in terms of what they make. So very affordable to those, those cap crunch teams.
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So we will have some of those depth players that teams are always looking for, especially teams that want to go in long runs. And we have some good veterans that you know if in the right situation, the right deals there would make a lot of sense to some teams. So I think I’m gonna let the players decide what we’re going to do based on their play and where we’re at in standings.”