How will Predators approach trade deadline amidst GM search?
A notable change in front office personnel might lead to a change in philosophy for the in Smashville.
On Monday, it was announced that Barry Trotz has stepped down as general manager of the Nashville Predators. It comes after a rather tumultuous time for the team that is staying competitive in the Western Conference playoff race, but not quite a contender to go far in the postseason.
That leads to the question of what the team will do moving forward in the coming weeks. With just over a month to go before the trade deadline, many wonder what the Preds will do to their roster before March 6, and whether they will bolster their roster or sell off assets.
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss what could be next for the Preds.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Trotz is apparently going to stay on until they find his successor. But what does this mean for the trade deadline? Does Barry Trotz have the ability to go out and trade a Ryan O’Reilly who has term or a Jonathan Marchesau or whoever it might be? Or does he have to wait till the new GM’s hired? To me, this forces Nashville into a situation where they’re probably going to have to stand pat heading up to the deadline.
Carter Hutton: I think so too, right? It’s tricky because they have a ton of deadline space too. But now you’re starting to build toward the future, but what does the future look like here? This is a different team in the sense that it’s not really in a rebuilding phase because of some of those veteran guys that still have terms. So, it’s not like you can kind of wipe the slate clean and move some guys off…They’ve kind of built this contender that’s not a contender at this point. So, it wasn’t like you could beef up.
It would make more sense if the Nashville Predators were a good team and they were adding at the perimeter. With their lineup, it just doesn’t work that way. So, I do think it will be by committee. David Poile’s been involved with this team. His son, Brian, is still around. There will be guys making decisions on trying to navigate as they get through this. But Nashville’s in a tricky spot because it’s like you’re trying to build toward your future. You have cap space. But some of these contracts are going to be heavy down the stretch here.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…