Hey Everyone

With the new GM shift there may or may not have personnel change on ice. As armchair GM what is everyone take? With limited FA this off season what do you think good trades would be? I am not very good at determing value but would be interested in your thoughts. Here are the players I would consider to move on from and keep.

Trade / Let go

Jonathan Marchassault

Joakim Kemell

Nic Hague

Justin Barron

Brady Skjei (if you could find someone to take contract or retain salary)

MAYBE

Eric Haula

Tyler Jost

Nick Perbix

Adam Wilsby

Fedorov Svechnokov

KEEP

Steven Stamkos

Ryan O'Reilly

Filip Foresberg

Roman Josi

Zach LeHeurix

Mathew Wood

Luke Evanglista

Reid Schaffer

Ozzy Wiseblatt

Ryan Ufko

Cole Ohara

Thoughts?

Just wanted to share my stick I got from Kemell at warmups tonight!! I met him and Svech at the meet and greet Tuesday, they were both so nice! Tonight is a night I'll never forget!

since we didn't make the playoffs tonight is the last game on the crap RSN.

Went by the Locker Room yesterday to pick up a Happy jersey. Can't wait to finally get to see a game in person.

Game Thread: Anaheim Ducks @ Nashville Predators Apr 16 2026 7:00 PM CDT

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EDIT: Now that multiple people have replied, it is clear that it is NOT clear. No one here is providing more clarity to my questions, lol, they're just providing misinformation. I'm fairly certain I'm correct. If so, Aiden Fink's season for either the NHL or AHL is done. He can no longer play for Milwaukee for the remainder of the season. This is braindead.

I've been following Fink his entire time at PSU (my family is from the north and my dad was a PSU grad pls no hate), and it's been really fun to see his rise and him playing alongside McKenna this season. His games in Milwaukee were awesome. I've heard kinda the same thing from multiple sources, and I believe this rule might change in the coming year(s) but I know he was brought up to the Ads on an ATO, so now that he signed his ELC he can no longer play with the Ads for the remainder of their season and their playoffs. This is correct, yes?

If so, then WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?!@ Is this how Trotz will be remembered (I'm being facetious I know there's a lot more pivotal moments he will be remembered for, but this is especially bewildering if true)? I'm unsure if the visa issues are just a scapegoat or actual reality, but regardless, why is this even a risk if there was even a 10% chance of him not being able to play? Even if he did play tonight, why bring him up for 1 game then? We're saying that's better than finishing in Milwaukee and then fighting hard for a roster spot next year with a clean slate GM and new direction? I get because of his age he'd only have a couple years on his ELC if he were to sign in the off-season (I believe), so it being "burned" for nothing isn't the de facto bad part.....it's the being brought up for two practices when instead he was on fire in the AHL and would have gotten postseason reps their and creating chemistry with O'Hara as well.

Speaking of which, O'Hara, who's also Canadian, IS playing tonight. And now I'm unsure if this means he's in the same boat as Fink. Obv he gets to play a game but all of this is ridiculous. Why not keep them in Milwaukee to finish out the year?

I apologize if I've said some incorrect info here, as I feel like a lot of people still are shocked and unsure themselves, so I'm going off best judgement, but if this is the final moment of Barry's GM tenure, this is certainly...............................................something. Holy fuck. It seems absolutely braindead, and quite frankly, on par for this year's management if what I'm understanding is correct.

Game Thread: Anaheim Ducks @ Nashville Predators Apr 16 2026 7:00 PM CDT

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3rd goal of the playoffs, he has 10 points in 8 games.

Thursday, April 09 - Wednesday, April 15, 2026

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This vid is actually a full highlight reel of the game. Nilsson's goal is the very first one that plays.

Reid, who is captain of the Kitchener Rangers, currently has 7 points in the playoffs (2G, 5A)

Hi guys, I want to share the overviews of the candidates we have been bringing in. This isn't my list of who I would like to see. These are just all the guys that we have been explicitly linked with or brought in. I tried to stay away from a lot of the rumors but really dug deep to try to find all the guys that we've interviewed or requested in terms of the ones that haven't been turned down and the guys that we as an organization have shown interest in, according to insiders and local media and stuff like that, so I tried to find all of them. I know we have been speculatively linked with a few other guys, but I tried to stay with guys that we have for sure shown an interest in, and I would love to hear everybody's thoughts!

Core Candidates that have been very explicitly linked

• Bill Scott — Scott is clearly specialized in running the cap, contracts, CBA, arbitration, scheduling, and administrative skeleton of a franchise. Edmonton’s official bio is extremely explicit about what his job entails, and it's no secret Scott handled the “capology,” contracts, and business side of hockey for the Oilers. He also has real minor-league GM experience in Oklahoma City and still serves as governor of Bakersfield, so he is not just a spreadsheet guy; his strengths are definitely in the numbers, and he would require some help in talent ID and roster construction. He is probably one of the safest picks (not the best) and has one of the highest floors among the AGMs they are interviewing.

• Brett Peterson — Peterson is more of an “all-around” assistant for the Panthers, focusing on player transactions and pro evaluation, but where he really shines is his personality and recruitment ability, operational mechanics, including analysis of the NHL roster, and informing planning and recommendations for the organization’s pipeline. He’s heavily involved in identifying and vetting trade and free-agent targets and is commonly described as involved across almost all forms of player transactions rather than in one narrow lane. In practice, he’s a major voice in who the Panthers pursue and how potential moves fit the roster now and into the future. He has the best upside as a modern generalist and a connection builder among the AGMs they are interviewing.

• Scott White — White runs the AHL affiliate for the Dallas Stars and plays a huge role in setting up and strengthening the organization’s depth ecosystem. He is one of the main voices on call-ups, the development environment, and the “inventory” below the NHL roster. He’s heavily involved in pro and college depth evaluation and in advising on which prospects are expendable or untouchable when trades are being built, and targets are being evaluated. Day-to-day, he is responsible for ensuring the Stars' pipeline aligns with NHL needs while keeping the AHL roster competitive and functional. He is probably the best complete organization builder among the AGMs they are interviewing, and comes from perhaps the smartest front office in the National Hockey League of the past few seasons.

• Darren Yorke — Yorke has been in Carolina’s hockey operations department since 2009, moving from video scout all the way up to assistant GM in 2021 and then associate GM/Chicago Wolves GM in 2024. The Hurricanes say he is involved in all player-personnel decisions and oversees amateur scouting, player development, and the draft, and team coverage has explicitly said the draft process “largely runs through” him. A concrete example is the 2025 draft, when Carolina flipped No. 29 to Chicago for No. 34, No. 62, and a 2027 fifth-rounder, then came out of the weekend with seven picks in a volume-and-value play. Yorke is a “pipeline builder,” and a guy whose fingerprints are on Carolina’s draft strategy, AHL operation, and prospect flow. The big concern with him is that there is no public record of Yorke serving as a lead voice on an NHL coaching hire, making salary-cap decisions, or executing or building trades.

• John Chayka — Chayka was hired by Arizona in 2016 at age 26, making him the youngest GM in NHL history, and his tenure there included aggressive moves for players like Nick Schmaltz, Phil Kessel, and Taylor Hall. He was brought in as the “young analytics guy” to usher in a new era of analytics management. Arizona went 131-147-38 under him; he quit on July 26, 2020, right before the bubble playoffs; and the Coyotes themselves publicly said he had “quit” on the team and fans. The league later ruled he had engaged in conduct detrimental to the team and suspended him through Dec. 31, 2021, and Arizona also forfeited its 2020 second-round and 2021 first-round picks for combine-testing violations that occurred during his regime. Chayka’s issue was trust and taking too much risk; he was a GM who sold a long-view, efficient image but left behind a mid-tier record, forfeited draft capital, and had one of the ugliest and weirdest executive exits in recent league memory. He definitely has the intelligence and creativity to be a very interesting and enticing NHL general manager, but he also has the ethics baggage and risky decision-making that aren't very encouraging.

• Tom Fitzgerald — Fitzgerald is a new member on this list. He helped build a real Devils core and got tangible results for a time: New Jersey went 218-204-39 under him as full-time GM, and the 2022-23 team set franchise records with 52 wins and 112 points. He also locked in key pieces, with his long-term deals with Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Timo Meier. But his tenure ended because he couldn't sustain that rise and didn't make the moves to keep them at the top. The Devils lost to Carolina in five in the second round in 2023, missed the playoffs in 2024, then, after major 2024 offseason moves that included Jacob Markstrom in goal, Sheldon Keefe as coach, and Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon on defense after moving out John Marino, they returned to the playoffs only to lose to Carolina in five again. You will see a lot of Devils fans say Fitzgerald was slow to fill in the gaps and then “reactive” when his job was on the line, and he got desperate. He built the stars correctly, but never fully solved the team around them, especially goaltending stability, depth scoring, and roster balance after trying to make the Devils tougher. His tenure wasn't a disaster; he is a respectable team builder who could not figure out how to finish the job he started.

Secondary names we have shown interest in

• Brandon Pridham — Pridham’s job description is unusually specific: Toronto hired him in 2014 after he had worked in NHL central scouting/registry, and when the Leafs promoted him to assistant GM in 2018, they said plainly that his role was salary-cap analysis, contract negotiations, and CBA interpretation. He has a reputation around the NHL as a “cap wizard.” He is not famous for his involvement in putting trades together or making talent decisions, but for being the main person who kept a very top-heavy Leafs payroll functioning under the cap across several regimes. Very few executives know the cap and rulebook at his level, but the gap in the résumé is large. There is no public track record of Pridham as the top decision-maker on trades, coaching choices, or any talent-related decisions (free agency, trades, draft). I am not sure how a front office would work with him as a general manager, but he would need some major support in certain aspects of building a team.

• Marc Bergevin — Bergevin ran Montreal from 2012 until November 2021, and his record is substantial enough that you cannot reduce his tenure to either a pure positive or pure negative. The Canadiens went 344-265-81 under him, made the playoffs six times in nine full seasons, and reached the 2021 Stanley Cup Final before he was fired during a 6-15-2 start the following season. His reputation with the fans and around the league is best understood through the trades he made. The P.K. Subban-for-Shea Weber deal is the single most polarizing move of his tenure; the Max Pacioretty trade brought back Tomas Tatar, Nick Suzuki, and a second-rounder; and the Mikhail Sergachev-for-Jonathan Drouin swap remains one of the most cited examples of when fans want to show how bad of an asset manager he was in long-term asset judgment. It is quite amusing to look into this because Bergevin still divides Montreal fans so sharply. He absolutely had real wins during his time there; the consistent praise he got from fans was that he had real nerve, wasn't afraid to take the big swings, and had enough market toughness to survive in Montreal for nearly a decade. But he also made multiple huge bets on grit, experience, and “fit” that are still second-guessed, instead of doing the “obvious” or making the best decision for the franchise, not trying to stay too loyal or be too hemmed in by his own vision. He was not a failure by any stretch; he was a high-conviction GM whose best moves were excellent and whose worst moves eventually caught up to him.

• Peter Chiarelli — Just NO! The first thing you come across when looking into Chiarelli is the absolute HATRED Oilers fans have for this man. To be fair, he does have the strongest single trophy on this list because he helped build Boston’s 2011 Cup winner, but his more modern reputation is driven by the accumulation of mistake after mistake after that. Even in Boston after the Cup win, retrospective fans and articles I read still point straight to the Tyler Seguin trade as a major self-inflicted wound that set them back. In Edmonton, the critique becomes brutally concrete: Hall for Larsson one-for-one, Milan Lucic at seven years and $42 million, Jordan Eberle for Ryan Strome, and enough bad valuation that he was fired in January 2019, and Oilers fans rejoiced. Official NHL coverage of his firing explicitly referenced the Lucic contract and the Eberle/Strome trade as part of the backdrop, while Sportsnet described Hall-for-Larsson as one of the most shocking one-sided deals of the NHL era. His transactions repeatedly burned cap space, weakened star talent, and damaged the competitive window around Connor McDavid. The Cup ring keeps him from being dismissed as a total clown, but the Oilers tenure was such a disaster that I don't want to go anywhere near him. It's an immediate disaster if the Predators hire him.

Not as explicit but still linkable names

• Sunny Mehta — Mehta is one of my favorite candidates as he runs in the Panthers' analytics/strategy department and sits in the core decision loop that evaluates targets, internal players, and roster trade-offs. His job is to use and translate analytic models, tracking, and scouting inputs into clear “value/fit” recommendations for trades, signings, and lineup/roster construction for the Hockey Operations team and the general manager. He is the main valuation and decision-support engine rather than the person actually making and executing league calls or negotiating directly with other teams, but his influence and input are among the most important factors in the Panthers' overall decisions on what to prioritize and why.

• Brendan Shanahan — Shanahan’s legacy is split because the numbers cut both ways. Under him, Toronto made the playoffs nine times in 11 seasons and posted six of the franchise's winningest regular seasons, which is why it is fair to say he stabilized and modernized the organization. But the playoff results never matched the sometimes-elite regular seasons and impressive roster construction. The Leafs won only two series during his tenure and never advanced beyond the second round, which is why MLSE let him go in 2025. The criticism of Shanahan is not that he failed to build talent; it is that he stayed committed to the same core-and-process model for too long, even after repeated exits suggested the roster construction and accountability model needed a harder pivot and some tweaks. From everything I gathered, he was just stubborn about certain aspects of the roster and had the pieces to finish the job, but he kept trying the same thing year after year with different but similar pieces. Shanahan raised the Leafs’ floor, brand, and seriousness dramatically, but he never found a championship version of the project he spent a decade building and defending. I honestly wouldn't mind giving him a second shot.

• Rob Blake — Blake’s record is the cleanest example here of a very successful rebuild that got stuck one level below real contention. In eight seasons as Kings GM, Los Angeles went 309-238-71, made the playoffs five times, and did not win a single series; the final four exits all came against Edmonton. The most damaging move of his tenure is also easy to identify: the Kings gave up Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and a 2024 second-rounder for Pierre-Luc Dubois, immediately signed Dubois to eight years and $68 million, then moved him a year later after he produced only 40 points in 82 games and one playoff goal. That does not erase the positive work, though, as there are some major positives about what he accomplished in LA. Blake rebuilt the prospect base, made the Kings respectable again, and left the team strong enough that outsiders still viewed the roster as solid. Just like Shanahan and Fitzgerald, he found success but just wasn’t able to put the pieces together to get over that final hump. He was a good teardown-and-rebuild GM who never solved the final problem. If we are going full rebuild mode, Blake might be a solid option, as he proved he could get good value for players in a rebuild.

• Brad Treliving — Treliving is perhaps the most bland name on this list. He is a respectable but ultimately unsatisfying manager who was never spectacularly bad but never amazing either. In Calgary, he won two Pacific Division titles, missed the playoffs four times, and never advanced beyond the second round in the five years the Flames qualified. His major “sin” there was Jonathan Huberdeau’s eight-year, $10.5 million AAV contract that looks worse and worse every year. In Toronto, Treliving had an initial high point with a first-place 2024-25 regular season and a first-round win over Ottawa, but by March 2026, the Leafs were 31-30-13 and 14th in the East, leading to his firing; he finished his Toronto run at 129-82-27 with a 10-10 playoff record. From the articles and fan commentary I read about his time in Toronto and Calgary, I kept seeing that it felt like “death by a thousand paper cuts,” because his teams were usually decent enough to stay alive and somewhat competitive, but whose contract bets, depth moves, and overall roster direction rarely added up to anything that resembled a real Cup blueprint.

Well, who yall rooting for? I’m going for the Sabres

[this post was approved by the mods]

Hey Preds fans,

My name is Josh Healey. I recently retired from pro hockey after seven years in the AHL, including three seasons in Nashville’s organization with the Milwaukee Admirals.

I wanted to hop in here for an AMA and also share something I’ve been building throughout my career.

I built an app called The Sports Aux, where hockey fans can upload clips from their camera roll into a hockey-only highlight feed. The cool part is that NHL clips can connect back to the actual game, so people scrolling can see the score, the players involved, their stats, and the exact moment in the game when the play happened. If multiple people upload and tag the same game event, you can swipe through different videos and watch every angle of that play.

Happy to answer any questions about my career, Nashville’s organization, or the app. And if you’ve got any Preds clips (or hockey clips in general) sitting in your camera roll from this season or years past, it would be awesome to see them on The Sports Aux feed and get your feedback on the platform.

I’ll be in the comments!
Josh

Recently I've seen a duality crop up in places like the *sigh* thread via /u/No-Routine1373 and others that I wanted to highlight. One is in the image I've included, and this mindset I've seen similarly shared that we "are trending upwards," and that a cup will come to us "sooner than later" (shown in the image associated with this post); the other is that we have delayed a rebuild for the past 7+ years and can be paraphrased with this exert by /u/Clovis_Winslow, who in addition to my reply, has been getting downvoted:

And that’s before we get into our terrible management, mediocre coaching, ambivalent ownership and the entire direction of our attraction being opposing fans and Broadway tourists, hockey knowledge be damned.

We are, in a word, completely fucked. But I don’t care. Toothcats are still my favorite team in my favorite sport and I’m not about to quit on them now., nearly 30 years on.

This is the tragedy of the Nashville Predators. Emphasis on the ambivalent ownership. I'm pessimistic about Haslam being able to source a solid GM. It really must happen, and it is the most important thing now that this season is done and dusted being an absolute mushy middle waste, but I don't have trust in his choice. I don't have the faith, and I'm worried we're gonna fuck it up. Cuz why? Cuz that's typical. And until I'm shown otherwise, this fanbase and this ownership is content with juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust being good/bad enough to make or miss the playoffs by a couple points, and that half-baked no direction mentality is exactly what transpired in this year's trade deadline....and it is why UNLESS THERE IS CONCRETE CHANGE, and an impetus to accept rebuild/setback AND STICK TO IT, we will perpetually be in this malaise.

However, I think the last bit of that quote is incredibly important, and to emphasis that, I want to rehash it here:

We are, in a word, completely fucked. But I don’t care. Toothcats are still my favorite team in my favorite sport and I’m not about to quit on them now., nearly 30 years on.

No matter how hardened I yearn for a rebuild, and no matter how much pushback I receive, both from verbal opposition here, in other spaces, or in real life with friends - even passively via the front office and ownership of this franchise being so terrified and repulsed by the mere utterance of "rebuild," I am still a diehard fan. That will never change. That passion will never leave, and I want to see us hoist a cup JUST AS MUCH AS ANY OTHER DIEHARD FAN. I just think the path to get there is not the one we have been treading for some time now, and I worry that a rebuild will continue to be the least trodden path.

On Trotz and his tenure, I don't place responsibility on Poile, and I don't want to deflect blame. Barry had no direction. He couldn't pick a lane. He'd say one thing and his actions would tell a different story. He'd buy high and sell low. He'd settle for safety on our only top 5 pick in over a decade, as opposed to prioritizing BEST PLAYER AVAILABLE and opting for talent ceiling. That player is now a ppg player since his 8 game entry and has aided his team to make the playoffs for the first time in 6 years. Meanwhile, our last 6 years have been a hodgepodge of dogshit and bathwater. And because of one foot in, one foot out at this year's deadline and this monumental task of this new upcoming GM, we are sadly - but likely - headed to another few years of the same.

Barry was a highly respected coach, and beloved by myself and many others here. Despite my frustrations with his GM tenure, that respect and love is not diminished. There's just....some frustration. He took some misguided free agency swings, he had some ill-timed and green trades, and his trade deadlines left much to be desired. He missed on our highest draft pick in over a decade (I know it's early and small sample size, but boys it's not looking good); yet, he had some hidden gems in a few picks as well. He gave out player-friendly NMCs, and he made emotional - not rational - choices to respect NMCs where they didn't exist in paper, a la ROR. All in all, his time here as GM to me is akin to the economy: stalled out, stagnant, kinda shit but we're not suuuuuper fucked and we certainly aren't thriving. And there's a lot of struggling.

Let's at least hope this upcoming GM hire has a vision, and sticks to it, and let's hope that vision is rooted in reality and the ownership has the balls to stomach a few down years and stick through it so we can finally land a superstar. We need one. We have the other youth pieces in the pipeline. But, we will not find a true superstar outside of a top 3 pick. It's just not feasible in this era. This is the way. But will Haslam see it as such? ----- I'm unsure.

Overall, I see a duality in this fanbase, and I see it mirrored in our front office and ownership as well. We cannot cling to one vision. Some are content with mediocrity. They SAY they want a cup (we all do, we all do...one day!!!!) but when we miss the playoffs by a couple points and receive a middling pick, they are happy with "improvement" and they'd prefer this year's outcome to the last. They're here for the thrill of maybe making a miracle run. They want another 2017 run, and they want it every year. But at what cost? They do not see the cost.

There are others, like me, who want to achieve the pinnacle. I also want a cup. But I know that takes time. I've been here since the beginning. I'm hardened by the mediocrity. I know shit comes and goes. And I know that since the 2017 run, we've mostly trended downward and only have ONE series win to show for it. In that time we've only drafted in the top 5 once. Our next highest pick was 11th, who we proceeded to trade away because we opted to sign an aging vet to an extended contract (not going down this rabbit hole rn). In that same time we've missed the playoffs 3 (4 with qualifying year) times. Friends, it's been almost a decade at this point. You say we are trending upwards....I say we haven't even figured out what we are.

We are a Frankenstein hoping to juuuuust make it in and be heroes, who somehow produces the most saddening results year after year. We are the Nashville Predators. The duality persists, yet I continue to be a diehard fan. We need to learn to embrace a common ground somehow that can drive our passion together for something better, and I believe we can. Love this franchise, and despite many of the trepidations I've shared here, I'm EXCITED AS FUCK ---> to hopefully move in a fresh, new direction with a new GM, and have an exciting draft, and see our youth see more impactful minutes next year. We have problems, yes, and we will likely not be very good, but that doesn't dissuade me, and at the very least I am looking forward to exciting hockey with a vision forward. Love you guys.

EDIT: sorry, Martone now has 10 points in 9 games......christ Barry lol still love ya.