Central Notes: Hynes, Toews, Coyotes

Even though the Predators find themselves outside the playoff picture and have been one of the lowest-scoring teams in the league this season, don’t expect a coaching change for the stretch run.  GM David Poile told Paul Skrbina of The Tennessean that John Hynes’ job is “absolutely not” in jeopardy and that he feels the coaching staff is doing a great job.  Nashville had quite a few players have career years in 2021-22 but that hasn’t been the case through the first two-thirds of this season.  They’ll need a few players to catch fire if they want to stay in the mix down the stretch; they sit four points out of both third place in the Central Division and the Western Wild Card race.

More from the Central:

• The Blackhawks will likely be without center Jonathan Toews for their next two games, relays Scott Powers of The Athletic (Twitter link). Chicago’s captain missed Tuesday’s game due to illness and while he returned to the gym today, head coach Luke Richardson indicated that the veteran likely won’t be recovered enough to play through the weekend.  Toews, a speculative candidate to be moved by March 3rd if he’s willing to waive his trade protection, sits third on the team in scoring with 14 goals and 14 assists in 46 games so far this season.
• There was a Coyotes-related element to today’s trade that sent Vladimir Tarasenko to the Rangers. In order for the conditional third-round pick to be included, it first had to be made available to New York to move as Arizona held that selection as part of the Patrik Nemeth swap last summer.  That trade gave Arizona the option to take the 2024 pick or New York’s 2026 selection.  CapFriendly confirms (Twitter link) that the Coyotes have opted for the 2026 choice, which ultimately helped pave the way for Tarasenko to be swapped.