Predators considering a Turris buyout? Granlund and Smith not coming back
Robby Stanley of NHL.com: The Nashville Predators could buy out the final four seasons of Kyle Turris‘ contract. He has a $6 million salary cap hit.
“We’ve had conversations with Kyle and his agent,” Predators general manager David Poile said. “I think there has been a change in terms of Kyle’s play under and now our current coach, John Hynes. It’s all a question mark of can he get his game back.”
Turris has struggled the past two seasons with the Predators recording only 54 points in 117 games.
Predators GM David Poile is considering a lot of options and is talking to GMs daily.
“My normal day is I probably talk to approximately 10 (general) managers a day, so there’s a lot of conversations. This is not just a conversation. I want to be open-minded. I want to see what the value of our players are, what changes we could make, if any, and then make a decision from that. So there’s going to be a lot of things that are going to happen here in the next week or so.”
Thomas Willis: Predators GM Poile on UFA forward Colin Blackwell: “I guess you could say there are some negotiations between us and Colin Blackwell.”
- Alex Daugherty: “Sounds to me like negotiations aren’t going all that well…”
- Brooks Bratten: Poile added that he not talking anything off the table with regards to his players and what could happen during the offseason.
Thomas Willis: Preds GM Poile said they are looking at adding another assistant coach.
Paul Skrbina of the Nashville Tennessean: The Nashville Predators have five UFAs in Craig Smith, Mikael Granlund, Yannick Weber, Colin Blackwell and Korbinian Holzer. Smith and Granlund definitely aren’t coming back
“We’re going to make changes,” Poile said. “Right off the top you’ve got two guys that are in our top nine in Granlund and Smith that are not … coming back, so that’s going to open up a couple spots for some other, younger guys.”
Weber, Blackwell and Holzer may not be back either.
The Predators may not be big players in free agency.
“I don’t think I want to make a whole bunch more changes because we do have younger guys that I think are ready to play like (Yakov) Trenin and Tolvanen.”