Predators GM Barry Trotz Recaps Nashville's Moves at the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline

Another trade deadline has come and gone.

By the time the window closed on Friday, Predators General Manager Barry Trotz had delivered his vision for Nashville’s immediate postseason dreams and their future - a vision that added much more than it subtracted.

“It was very interesting, from my standpoint,” Trotz said. “I thought our scouts were dialed in on what the plan was, and we've had to pivot on the plan a little bit, probably a couple of weeks ago. We were probably looking at being a seller and then this team [sent a message] loud and clear, and I'm going to try to help them out. So, we had to balance being in a unique situation where we didn't want to hurt our future, we wanted to prop up our team and make it better for hopefully the playoffs.”

Compared to last year’s deadline, which saw four core Predators players traded off in return for increased cap space and a number of draft selections and rentals, this year’s edition was far more additive.

Forwards Yakov Trenin and Denis Gurianov, defensive prospect Graham Sward and a fifth and sixth round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft served as the only subtractions when the clock struck two on Friday, while a number of depth pieces to Nashville’s forward group, an enticing defensive prospect and a future draft pick arrived in their place.

Explore all the pickups made by the Predators at the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline below:

The Here & Now

Received from ARI: Jason Zucker (F)

Traded to ARI: 2024 6th Round Pick (DAL)

Cap Hit: $5,300,000

Trotz Thoughts:

“I felt that he's very competitive, he’s got a good hockey IQ, he's driven, he brings a lot of life and he can play any kind of game that you want to. He fits the more skill game. He has lots of skill to play that game, but when it gets dirty and nasty and into the trenches, he can do that as well. So that fits right into our game. So, having the flexibility in our cap space made it easier for us to get him, because with salary, there's always retention. And one thing I found with all of the teams, the teams that have been in it for a couple of years, sometimes they might be tapped out on draft picks, so it's hard for them to acquire stuff. And then at the same time, we're up against a cap a lot of times and so not being up against the cap and having some draft capital means we sort of used that a little bit to our advantage.”

Received from CHI: Anthony Beauvillier (F)

Traded to CHI: 2024 5th Round Pick

Cap Hit: $4,150,000

Trotz Thoughts:

“[He’s got] speed, skill. No matter who we play, if we can get to the playoffs, all those teams have skill and speed. He has that, he has playoff experiences like [Zucker] does. I think that can do nothing but help us. And being familiar with his game, I think I can describe it to [Predators Head Coach Andrew Brunette]. I think I can help on the side with [Beauvillier], because I have a relationship and I’ve known him for a number of years and on the Island. We play a little differently than a lot of teams and trying to play that way and getting thrown in the lineup and then being told to play like us, they're going to need an adjustment time. There's no question. So, for our coaches, for myself, for you and the fans, you have to have patience, because we play differently than a lot of teams. And we demand a lot of our players and we push the puck and we stay on pucks, so we’re pretty relentless when it comes to that area. And some teams are more back up and angle and play an easier game, and we aren’t. We like hard people and I think we got a couple people that do that.”

The Future

Received from COL: Jeremy Hanzel (D), 2025 3rd Round Pick

Traded to COL: Yakov Trenin (F), Graham Sward (D)

Cap Hit: $851,667 (Starting 2024-25)

Trotz Thoughts:

“We’ve got a number of forwards that are coming. I think our forward group is good for the next couple of years. We need to get better at center ice, but our forward group is in really good shape. They can fill a lot of the holes that we have coming in the next couple of years. They’re there. The area that we have to restock now is the back end. We started doing that with [2023 first-round pick] Tanner [Molendyk] last year. With Jeremy, we had good reports and our scouts liked him, and Colorado identified him as a good player. They just signed him that day, or the day before. So obviously they thought the same way. We talked to the young man, he got signed and they probably threw a jersey in the mail to him for signing, and all of a sudden he gets a call and I'm talking to him and [Assistant GM] Brian Poile is talking to him. And he's coming here and he's going to have a Predators jersey. So it must have been really weird for him, but at the same time, there's teams that like him and obviously Colorado liked him because they signed him. And we liked him because we got him.”

Received from Waivers (LAK): Jaret Anderson-Dolan (F)

Cap Hit: $775,000

Received from PHI: Wade Allison (F)

Traded to PHI: Denis Gurianov (F)

Cap Hit: $785,000

Though Trotz did not directly touch on Anderson-Dolan or Allison during his press conference on Friday, the pair of forwards will likely provide the GM two more offensive options to pull from.

Anderson-Dolan joined the Predators for practice on Friday at Bridgestone Arena and departed with the team for their back-to-back set in Columbus and Minnesota this weekend. It is unclear if he will join the lineup for either game.

A member of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms’ 2023-24 roster, Allison was loaned to the Milwaukee Admirals following Friday’s trade.

The Signings

Signed Cole Smith (F): Two-Year, $2 Million

Signed Michael McCarron (F): Two-Year, $1.8 Million

Signed Tommy Novak (F): Three-Year, $10.5 Million

Signed Dante Fabbro (D): One-Year, $2.5 Million

Signed Mark Jankowski (F): Two-Year, $1.6 Million

Trotz Thoughts:

“This whole trade deadline didn't really start today… For us the trade deadline was getting Smith and McCarron signed up. You know, obviously we acquired Zucker, we acquired Beauvillier, Anderson-Dolan, Allison. We traded Trenin, we got a third in 2026 and a prospect in Jeremy Hanzel. That's sort of what we accomplished on our side. And then we moved out Trenin and Gurianov and only used a fifth and sixth. So I think we accomplished what we wanted to.”