There is no white flag at the top of Bridgestone Arena.
The Nashville Predators are not going into a full teardown.
Yes, they made yet another trade Wednesday night, this time sending 28-year-old defenseman Alexandre Carrier to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for 23-year-old defenseman Justin Barron. But this is no firesale. The Preds are realistic about their dim chances this year, of course, which is why they have peeled off a few pieces so far this season. But the idea is to put themselves in a position to bounce right back next year.
“It’s not a rebuild,” Preds general manager Barry Trotz told The Athletic on Thursday. “I’m not in the business of not winning. I’m in the business of trying to win. We’re not selling off. We are resetting. We know where we are. It’s not where we thought we would be.
“But we want to move forward.”
Barron struggled in Montreal this season, but the Preds see a chance to build him back up, as they have successfully over the years with other blueliners. Barron (23) is younger than Carrier (28), and he’s also bigger.
“I had tried to get Justin from the Canadiens last year,” Trotz said. “I just felt that we needed a right-shot who was age-appropriate. We needed a little more size. I know he’s got some warts, but I don’t know a player who does not have warts.
“We’ve been very good at developing defensemen and so I just felt he was getting underplayed there a little bit,” Trotz added. “Hopefully with his age and talent, we can get a decent player out of that.”
The price for the 2020 first-rounder (No. 25) was Carrier, which wasn’t easy to do.
“That was a tough one, because Alex Carrier is a player that as an organization you value,” Trotz said. “But we are also trying to get ahead of the curve. I’m a realist. I know where we are right now. We are resetting for next year. I want to add some (cap) flexibility.”
That’s because Trotz intends to be aggressive again next offseason to help fill some holes. They want to be a playoff team next season.
“I think we’re in a bit of a unique situation in that we’re sitting at the bottom of the league, we’ve got some good players and we’ve got some good prospects on the way, and we could end up with a top-five pick,” Trotz said.
Which would certainly be a silver lining of a season that’s gone completely wrong based on preseason expectations.
It is somewhat similar to the New Jersey Devils a year ago, in that it was easy to see a roster that was more talented than what the record showed as injuries and goaltending sunk them. The Devils were a clear bounce-back candidate entering this season, and that’s what Trotz hopes will be the case for Nashville.
“I want to set myself up for the summer,” Trotz said. “We will look at the free-agent market. We will look at adding pieces. There will be teams that are going to be up against it (the cap), so we want to take advantage of that.
“But I want to set it up beforehand.”
So that they’re in a place where they can be as flexible as possible, cap-wise, to be aggressive again next summer.
This past offseason’s big additions of Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei produced lots of excitement, but the new pieces didn’t mesh well out of the gate. It was a rather stunning first couple of months for the Predators. And pretty much sunk their season.
But the idea of trying to trade Stamkos before March 7, as some people have wondered in the sphere of spitballing speculation? That’s not a thing, according to Trotz.
“There’s no chance,” Trotz said of even considering that. “I believe that you have to have good players that compete in this league. This league is too good. You need the veteran players to carry the way. They have to carry a good piece of the load so that your young guys can be slotted correctly and have success and grow.”
The Predators need Stamkos and Marchessault to play a big part in that, despite what’s transpired this season.
It has been a busy first half of the season for Trotz, who also traded away Scott Wedgewood and Philip Tomasino and waived Dante Fabbro. But it sounds like he will let the dust settle for a while now before March 7.
“Unless there’s something that knocks my socks off, I’m going to be pretty quiet now,” Trotz said. “I’ve done a lot of business.”
The thing he hasn’t done is making a coaching change. That’s the low-hanging fruit for GMs when a season goes off the rails like it has for Nashville. But Trotz believes in Andrew Brunette and that this season’s adversity will help his head coach grow.
Never say never, but for now it sure sounds like Trotz wants to give Brunette every chance to stay on.
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
