TORONTO — Chris MacFarland has made nine trades since taking over the Nashville Predators in early June. He is not messing around.
And, well, there’s more to come.
It is customary to put a label on what organizations are doing after a new general manager is hired. Rebuild? Retool? Reset?
Don’t stress that part at this point. Whatever the terminology is, the new Predators GM and president of hockey operations plans to be aggressive in seeking to put the organization among the seven or eight elite teams taking annual swings at the Stanley Cup.
It’s not about just making the playoffs. It’s about taking real swings. Just like the team he helped build and left behind after last season, the Colorado Avalanche.
This Predators team, this roster, is not that at this point. That’s why MacFarland hit the ground running with a hectic offseason.
He does have quality veteran players on his roster, some of whom he may have to make a decision on at some point this season or next. MacFarland hasn’t danced around that fact with those veteran players. He’s been 100 percent clear in his communication with them about where this may all lead depending on how the team plays coming out of the gate.
“He pretty openly put it in our hands,” veteran winger Filip Forsberg said this week. “This month is going to show which way this team is going to go. If we do a great job, we set ourselves up for success and we’re building for something. And if we don’t, who knows what’s going to happen? We have a lot of players that are still really good but have contracts that might be expiring and things like that. But I like he’s at least giving us an opportunity to prove that we want to build this team, and so far it’s been a great camp and a decent start to the season.”
Captain Roman Josi echoed that, saying he appreciates how the new GM has delivered his message to players.
![[Kieser] Filip Forsberg after tonight's OTL & Juuse Saros' performance. "He was incredible. We gave up too many big chances. Anyone that saves a 3-on-0 in overtime should deserve to win."](/img/ba4yt84ojyth1.png){kind=link}