How will the Predators navigate the trade deadline with recent resurgence?
If you want proof that the NHL season can be a roller coaster, look no further than the Nashville Predators. After the first couple months of the season, the Preds were clearly one of the most disappointing teams in the league. Head coach Andrew Brunette seemed on the verge of getting fired, and veteran players like Ryan O’Reilly and Michael Bunting were getting thrown into trade rumors.
Following Thursday’s 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators, however, Nashville finds themselves just one point back of a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Since December 1st, they have the seventh best record in the NHL at 16-9-0. Now, the Predators face the classic dilemma for teams on the playoff bubble ahead of trade deadline: sell and look to next season, or buy and try to make the most of this season.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed how Nashville should approach March 6th’s trade deadline.
Carter Hutton: Now the Preds are for real. We went from these contracts you couldn’t move off of, to what do they do moving forward? Are they a playoff team, or are they just having a hot run?
Tyler Yaremchuk: I’m really curious to see how they handle the deadline. There’s that old saying that front offices rebuild but players never do. No guy in that room for Nashville was coming into the year going “Oh boy, I really hope we can get a good draft pick this summer.” Even regardless of what you do at the deadline, guys in that room, if you sell off a couple pieces, aren’t just going to dust off their hands and be like “Well, time to stop trying boys.”
I think there maybe is a case, and part of it is that O’Reilly has term on his contract, (Steven) Stamkos, (Jonathan) Marchessault, all these guys have term, you can keep them, see if you can put together something to make the playoffs this year, and still trade them this summer if you decide to go that route.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Friday’s episode here…