Barry Trotz wrapped up his first trade deadline as General Manager yesterday, and the Nashville Predators have a roster they hope will help them stay in a position to make the playoffs.
“I tried to keep our word to our players,” Trotz said Friday afternoon after the deadline. “If you show me which direction you want to go, then I would help that, but I’m not going to mortgage the future.”
“I think we were able to accomplish a lot of that.”
Trotz made two big additions to the Predators’ roster ahead of the deadline.
The Predators traded a 2024 fifth-round draft pick to Chicago in exchange for forward Anthony Beauvillier. The 26-year-old Quebec native was a 2015 first-round pick for the New York Islanders where he spent time playing under former Isles head coach Trotz.
Beauvillier’s stats may not jump off the page initially, but Trotz believes his skill set and experience will benefit the Predators in the final stretch of the regular season and potentially into the playoffs.
“He has speed, skill,” Trotz said of Beauvillier. “If we can get to the playoffs, all those teams have a lot of skill, a lot of speed.”
Beauvillier also has plenty of playoff experience under Barry Trotz. Beauviller played 49 games for the New York Islanders in the postseason and scored 15 goals and 29 points. His most memorable career goal came in June 2021 in Game 6 overtime against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup semifinals. Beauviller picked off a pass and scored on Andrei Vasilevsky to force a Game 7.
Despite only having four goals and 14 points in 45 games this season, Trotz believes Beauvillier can contribute to the Predators down the stretch.
“He’s a good player,” Trotz said. “He’s had a sort of dip a little, a bit of a difficult year, but he’s a good player and he’s going to help us.”
Nashville also added forward Jason Zucker from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a sixth-round pick in the upcoming draft.
“I’ve never coached Jason at any level, but I’ve coached against him and he’s always been a pain in the area we won’t talk about,” Trotz said Friday.
Andrew Brunette is very familiar with 32-year-old Zucker who spent time in Minnesota while Andrew Brunette worked with the Wild franchise.
Zucker has had five 20+ goal seasons in his career including last season in which he scored 27 goals and 48 points with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Earlier this season Zucker dealt with a lower-body injury, but is healthy and ready to jump into the lineup.
As far as the long-term future for Beauvillier and Zucker with Nashville, Trotz is keeping all options open. Both players come to Nashville on expiring contracts.
“I look at them. They’re expiring contracts, and I think they have game,” Trotz explained.
“Everything has to fit into that puzzle at the right prices. Saying that, they’ve got an opportunity to help us right now. They have a chance to play in the playoffs and make a case for something, be it more than rental.”
The deadline also saw a move out of Nashville for one popular Predators forward. Yakov Trenin was traded to the Colorado Avalanche in a deal that included the rights to Predators prospect Graham Sward in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick and young defender Jeremy Hanzel.
Trotz indicated that there was a conversation about re-signing Trenin but the ask was perhaps not where the team was wanting to be. Factoring in the increase over the next few seasons in dead cap meant less wiggle room financially.
Young players in Milwaukee also factored into the decision to move on from Trenin.
“Looking down the road, I think we have pieces that we can substitute at a right price,” Trotz said.
Hanzel, like Sward, is an overage defender playing for the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds. The 6’1″ blueliner was picked in the sixth round of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft and just signed an ELC, which is set to begin in 2024-25, yesterday. He plays heavy minutes for the Thunderbirds, and while his scoring totals might not be as impressive, his play-killing skills are likely an upgrade over Sward (something Trotz sees as projectable to the NHL).
Barry Trotz also made a deal with the Philadelphia Flyers that sent Denis Gurianov to Philly in exchange for forward Wade Allison. Gurianov played 27 games for the Milwaukee Admirals scoring 12 goals and 30 points earlier in the season, but that AHL success didn’t translate when he joined the Predators for 14 games in which he scored one goal and one assist.
Allison will be a solid pick-up for the Milwaukee Admirals, who won’t have the services of Gurianov or Mark Jankowski for the balance of the season. In a career marred by injuries, Allison has turned a quietly impressive collegiate career into a serviceable stint in the NHL. Through 46 games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this year, he’s scored 10 goals and 17 points.
One other young addition to the franchise came as the Predators picked up forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan off waivers from the LA Kings Thursday.
Anderson-Dolan, a former second-round pick in 2017, has struggled to crack the Kings’ lineup full-time. He’s proven he can be near a point-per-game player in the AHL, but the 24-year-old has just 28 points in 126 career NHL games. With his decent skating mechanics, he’ll serve as a depth option to replace the likes of Trenin and Gurianov.
At the end of the press conference Friday afternoon, Trotz announced three contract signings. Mark Jankowski signed a two-year, $1.6 million contract, Dante Fabbro signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal, and goaltender Gustavo Davids Grigals signed a two-way deal.
Jankowski began the season in Milwaukee where he played 40 games and scored 15 goals and 47 points. The 29-year-old forward was called up in early December for a few games and then joined the Predators lineup again on February 13. He’s played on the wing with Tommy Novak and Luke Evangelista.
Fabbro, a perennial trade topic, signed a deal that will keep him in Nashville for another year at the same price. Fabbro has been a healthy scratch at times this season, but during the recent win streak he has skated with Roman Josi and that defensive pairing has been extremely effective.
Grigals has spent this season with the Atlanta Gladiators of the ECHL, playing on an AHL contract. He’s posted an 0.898 save percentage and allowed 5.144 goals below average through 26 games with the mediocre Gladiators.
There were a few things that didn’t happen before the deadline that Barry Trotz addressed Friday afternoon.
Defenseman Alexandre Carrier, who was the subject of much trade speculation ahead of the deadline, remained with the team but so far has not re-signed with the Predators.
“We’re still talking,” Trotz said with regards to a Carrier deal. “We’re not there yet. We’re going to work together to see if we can get something that makes both sides happy.”
Another defenseman who will remain with the team is Tyson Barrie. Barrie has played just 35 games this season and both Barrie’s camp and the Predators hoped to find him a fresh start at the deadline.
“I’m going to give a lot of credit to both parties. Tyson and Bayne [Bayne Pettinger], his agent.” Trotz said Friday. “They worked the phones hard. I know that because I was getting calls and I tried to do what I could.”
Another player that could have been moved at the deadline but who will remain with the Predators is backup goaltender Kevin Lankinen. The pivot away from selling likely affected the decision to keep Lankinen in Nashville for the remainder of the season.
“I would probably say if we were in full sell mode that he probably wouldn’t have finished here,” Trotz said of the pending UFA goalie. “I talked to Kevin about that and he was okay with that.”
There was interest in the Finnish net minder.
“There were a couple of inquiries, but nothing that got really serious at the end,” Trotz said.
Trotz realizes the small changes he made to the line up will mean an adjustment period for the team as they make a run for the playoffs.
“It’s harder than you think,” Trotz said of making even small lineup changes on a team riding a hot streak.
“I’ve been behind the bench and had a couple of new guys,” Trotz said. “There’s an uneasiness feeling. I think it’s the guys that have been in and out of the lineup a little bit. Those guys have the most uneasiness. ‘How’s that affect me? What’s my place at the table?'”
So far, so good. New additions Beauvillier and Zucker slotted in the lineup on Saturday in the Predators 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Tomorrow Nashville travels to Minnesota to take on the Wild.
