In a notable announcement from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Barry Trotz will resign as the Nashville Predators’ General Manager later today. Friedman noted that since no successor has been decided upon yet, Trotz will remain as the General Manager until a replacement is found.
Until the Predators have their press conference formalizing the move, there’s no word whether Trotz will retire or continue his professional career in a different capacity. If it is the end of his hockey career, he’ll leave as one of the most celebrated sports figures in Nashville.
His first year with the team was in the 1997-98 season when he was hired as a scout. He didn’t last long in that role, as he was elevated to the team’s head coaching position ahead of the 1998-99 season. The Predators didn’t know it at the time, but Trotz would become one of the league’s longest-tenured coaches.
Serving as Nashville’s head coach for 15 years, Trotz guided the Predators to a 557-479-60-100 record in 1,196 games. Throughout the last decade of his run as the team’s bench boss, the Predators made the playoffs seven times. Unfortunately, they failed to advance past the Western Conference semifinals, being ousted by the Vancouver Canucks and Phoenix Coyotes in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
At the end of the 2013-14 season, Nashville announced that it wouldn’t be retaining Trotz for a 16th season. A month and a half later, Trotz was named head coach of the Washington Capitals, where he worked as a scout from 1988 to 1991.
His time in the District of Columbia was arguably the most successful of his career, finishing with a 206-89-34 record in 328 games. The Capitals won the Metropolitan Division in three out of four years under Trotz’s tutelage, and he guided the team to its first Stanley Cup championship in 2018. Despite the impressive climax of his tenure in Washington, he resigned as head coach later that summer due to a contract dispute.
Trotz moved quickly, signing on as the New York Islanders’ head coach for the 2018-19 season. The team reached the Eastern Conference Final in 2020 and 2021, but relieved Trotz of his duties after failing to qualify for the postseason in 2022. Being his last coaching experience, Trotz is fifth all-time in coaching wins with 914.
Without a home for the 2022-23 NHL season, Trotz moved to the front office, rejoining the Predators as a special advisor with the understanding he would become the team’s next General Manager after David Poile retired.
Despite the legendary coaching career, it’s safe to say that Trotz’s career as an executive hasn’t gone as well. Back in May, PHR’s Josh Cybulski analyzed many of Trotz’s head-scratching moves with the Predators.
It got off to a relatively good start, ridding the team of high-priced contracts for Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen. The team used that newfound cap space rather quickly, signing Ryan O’Reilly, Gustav Nyquist, and Luke Schenn to multi-year deals.
Since then, rather than targeting veterans to fill a serious need, Trotz has seemed to throw money at the wall to see what sticks. Highlighted by the summer ahead of the 2024-25 season, the Predators signed Steven Stamkos, Brady Skjei, and Jonathan Marchessault to big-ticket contracts. Infamously, the Predators immediately bottomed out, finishing in 30th place with a 30-44-8 record.
He hasn’t done much to alter the roster in any meaningful way, since. Yes, the Predators have added a few younger players with good potential, but they’ve continued to add veterans like Michael Bunting, Erik Haula, Nicklaus Perbix, and Nicolas Hague, showing little internal direction.
Whether he faced top-down pressure from ownership or if he’s making the decision entirely on his own volition, it’s clear that Nashville is looking for a new voice to lead the front office. It allows the franchise to implement a firm refresh after being governed by the Poile/Trotz regime for the last quarter-century.
Well, I think few saw this coming?
Something personal maybe?
More likely a did he jump/was he pushed?
The obvious was, despite being more competitive this season than last, they still way underperformed expectations. And the roster construction is terrible, as witnessed by the falloff in Soros’ performance.
Everyone saw this coming. It’s been talked about for weeks
This seems like hey we are going to move on and we’d like you to resign rather than fire you
I think it was because he’s bad at his job, And, Everyone could see it.
I don’t think he was talking about weeks…
But it’s hard to blame Trotz entirely for the underperformance. We have seen flashes of the talent on the roster but they don’t seem to be playing with any sense of urgency.
I feel like the biggest thing coaches and front offices need to start noticing is if a team isn’t playing with a sense of urgency or players aren’t.
The blend of good young hungry talent combined with a few disciplined veterans seems to be the key. Not just buying the overpriced veterans and expecting them to mesh and play with the same urgency.
Well, this is news I’m sure many Nashville fans will be pleased about of GM Barry Trotz resigning as Trotz was giving their fans the trots with his insufficient managerialism lol.
Did a lot for the franchise but he doesn’t look healthy. Good move for him and his family.
I know people like to pile on Trotz for being a bad GM, but if you go back to the 2024 signing spree (Stamkos, Marchessault, Skjei, etc.) pretty much everyone thought he hit a homerun & that the Preds were going to be major Cup contenders. That all quickly went south, but at the time fans were pumped.
His hiring of Brunette doomed him from the start.
He was in over his head as GM. His asset management was some of the worst I’ve ever witnessed across the league
If his career is done there can certainly be questions about his front office stint but he has to go down as one of the better coaches in recent history. As a Hawks fan I always had a ton of respect for what their entire organization (with a big nod to Poile) did in Nashville as we had so many great battles over the years. I remember during the expansion making jokes about expanding into “questionable” hockey markets. Safe to say they very much proved me wrong.
Good lord! About time, Great coach, TERRIBLE GM.
Scroll back to when they signed every superstar on the market and had a star goaltender and a prospect (now traded away) goalie waiting in the wings…
Literally everyone said this team is going to win 50+ games outright if not more.
Yes hindsight is 20/20 but every fan in the league was clamoring for the guys he acquired. Let’s not pretend anyone given the green light would have done differently.
Although there are a good number of know-it-all’s around here that give him a bit of competition, Wilf Karen is the king of hindsight. An absolute master on making predictions on things after they have happened.
Hopefully they sign Drapper and get him outta Detroit!
The Preds have never had a good GM.
As a Caps fan I can’t thank him enough for bringing The Cup here.
I hope he tries coaching again. It would be great to see him behind the boards.
Old school coaches are no longer in demand. I suspect he probably knew this when he went upstairs. He should just ride into the sunset and go fishing
Wow. I am truly shocked at this. Have to think a rift opened up from what the new ownership wanted and how Trotz wanted to operate. But who really knows.
Not really shocked as much as kind of curious about the timing. Right before the Trade Deadline and the Olympics. Just hope it’s not health related. He did seem a bit over matched for the position.
As a penguins fan I’m disappointed. He was so bad at the job that we got some good players for pennies.
Our long Nashville nightmare is over. From others’ comments, it sounds like there are concerns about his health. I hope those are unfounded, because he seems like a wonderful guy all around. But he was a terrible GM who has saddled this team with mediocre talent, terrible long-term contracts, and a pipeline full of 3rd liners and low-ceiling types.
I wonder whether the Predators need one owner, and not a committee of wise men. I think the current leadership has settled for mediocrity and rejected any innovation out of hand. The team is bad and boring, and the game experience has gotten stale and tired. Trotz leaving is the first move, but I hope it’s not the last move.
Not a health issue according to Barry.
Why couldn’t this be Tom Fitzgerald.
Why couldn’t this be Chris Drury?
Maybe Fitzgerald and Drury can be a change of scenery trade. No doubt Islanders fans would love it.
I’m curious as to why they thought he would be qualified to be a GM in the first place? He was an excellent coach and is clearly an exceptional human being, but it seemed like a ridiculous move to make him GM in the first place. Just because someone’s been a pilot for 30 years doesn’t automatically qualify them to be an aircraft mechanic when they retire, and it would be quite dangerous to do so. I would suggest this has proven quite dangerous, too…two very different skill sets.
Trotz quit coaching because of the travel, He was given the position in which he was completely unqualified for solely because of nepotism! You are correct.
There are a few other GMs that should do the same. I’m thinking of LA, Calgary, Chicago, Ottawa and maybe Phila.
Why would the Hawks move on from Davidson? He’s done a fantastic job emerging from the Bowman nightmare and everything is starting to look up. Hawks are actually in the playoff hunt at least a year early and have more stockpiling to do and young talent arriving as soon as a couple of months( Kantserov, Frondell). I’m willing to bet that KD pulls off his 3 first round pick trick one more time as he already has 2 and 3 second round picks and maybe some trades to make. He’s not panicking and letting things come to him. He’s doing fine.
“Retiring” a year before his contract is up and staying on in the vaguest of terms as an “adviser” pretty obviously equates to a firing. I guess ownership respected his service to the org and city for so long and wanted to frame it more gently? I find that silly but maybe I’m the only one.
Anyway, despite his whiffs in free agency the Preds have a really solid prospect pipeline and tons of draft capital in place. Kudos to Trotz for at least leaving the org in a spot setup for future success.
I respectfully disagree. Trotz’ philosophy was old school to the point of regressive: lots of grit and hustle, which has left the system heavy in players highly likely to play in the NHL, but highly unlikely to be top-6 forwards or top-4 defensemen on a playoff-caliber team. Brady Martin sounds like a stand-up dude, but they probably should have taken James Hagens just to bring some excitement to the system. Early returns from both players suggest that Trotz made the wrong call, but I admit it’s early. Maybe Ryker Lee will develop, he’s exciting but very high risk for being a “Top 6 or Out” kind of player.
I’m not saying that the system is barren. But the sequencing is off, and no one appears to have superstar potential.
Yeah definitely not barren. Prior to the season the Preds ranked 10th on The Athletic’s prospect pipeline rankings. Pronman did say “I don’t see a true star talent in this system” which lines up with your assessment, but they’re hardly the only team in that spot. And the system should get even stronger after a deadline selloff.
The recent free agent splashes were huge whiffs but that’s the way they can acquire a couple of those star-level talents when the prospects who are more secondary scores and role players start establishing themselves in the NHL.
Anyway, sounds like a good day for Predators fans so I’m happy for y’all.
Is there going to be a deadline selloff? Preds in the thick of the wildcard race.
As for last seasons UFA buying spree, Stamkos is doing quite well this season.
should’ve stuck with coaching .. hopefully their next GM can cut the dead weight and capitalize on what’s left
He can’t hear you. He has a Stanley Cup ring in his ear.
Carolina let Brady go and replaced him with Shayne Gostisbehere at half the pay.