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Predators Place Luke Evangelista On IR, Activate Adam Wilsby

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The Predators have made a pair of roster moves heading into tonight’s game against Minnesota.  Nick Kieser of 102.5 The Game relays (Twitter link) that Nashville has placed winger Luke Evangelista on injured reserve.  Taking his place on the roster is defenseman Adam Wilsby who has been activated off IR.  Nashville’s active roster currently stands at 22 players.

Evangelista’s placement on IR was only a matter of time.  He has already missed more than a week due to a lower-body injury and at the time of diagnosis, he was expected to miss a month.  The 22-year-old had a promising showing last season in his first full NHL campaign, tallying 16 goals and 23 assists in 80 games, leading to some higher expectations for 2024-25.  However, things haven’t gone as well for Evangelista this season as he had just four goals and ten assists in 39 games before being sidelined.

As for Wilsby, he missed close to three weeks due to an upper-body injury.  The 24-year-old has split the season between Nashville and AHL Milwaukee.  Wilsby has 15 appearances under his belt with Nashville in his first taste of NHL action, collecting a goal and three assists while logging 18:43 of ice time.  Meanwhile, with the Admirals, he has five points in 13 games.  With his activation giving the Preds seven healthy blueliners, it’s fair to say that Wilsby won’t be returning to the minors right away though that could change when Jeremy Lauzon is cleared to return from his lower-body injury.

Jeff Kealty To Serve As GM For USA At 2025 Men's Worlds

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  • USA Hockey announced on Friday that Jeff Kealty will serve as GM for their entry into the men’s World Championship in May. He’s in his 24th season with the Predators and his seventh as their assistant GM and Scouting Director.  While he’s not an NHL GM, he’ll be working with several of them to help assemble the roster as he’ll be assisted by the U.S. Men’s National Team Advisory Group consisting of John Vanbiesbrouck and no fewer than ten active NHL general managers.

Predators Expecting Increase In Trade Talks, Interest In Ryan O’Reilly

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The Nashville Predators entered the 2024-25 season with, on paper, one of the best rosters in the NHL. They won the sweepstakes for Tampa Bay Lightning legend Steven Stamkos in his first trip to unrestricted free agency, and bolstered him with impact players in Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei. But Nashville now sits with a dismal 13-22-7 record halfway through the season. They rank as a bottom-three team in the NHL, and have responded to the disappointing year by kicking off a fire sale of trades and roster moves. The Predators have already made five trades this season, shipping off Philip Tomasino, Scott Wedgewood, Alexandre Carrier, and Juuso Parssinen; while also losing Dante Fabbro to Columbus via a waiver claim.

Despite all of that change, it seems Nashville’s novice general manager Barry Trotz is preparing for even more action. He told Nick Kieser of Nashville’s 102.5 The Game that the team is expecting an uptick in trade conversations now that the league’s winter meetings are winding down. Trotz went on to mention former Selke Trophy and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Ryan O’Reilly specifically, sharing that he’s expecting plenty of teams to be interested in the depth forward. Trotz didn’t rule out a trade but emphasized that the team will talk with O’Reilly before making any sort of move.

O’Reilly is no stranger to Trade Deadline swaps, joining the Toronto Maple Leafs via a Deadline move in 2023. He scored 20 points in 24 total games with the Leafs before signing with Nashville in the following summer. He’s seen an uptick in his production in two years with the Preds, netting 26 goals and 69 points in 82 games last year and on pace for 53 points this season. Both marks sit in line with O’Reilly’s scoring during his prime years with the St. Louis Blues. Now 33, the shutdown forward’s overall impact is starting to dwindle – though his 55-percent faceoff win rate and 37 still rank second among Predators forwards, behind only Colton Sissons (56.2 faceoff percent, 44 hits).

With the trade deadline the point of conversation, Trotz also emphasized to Kieser that the team’s big blow up has already occurred. He said that, “this trade deadline is going to look a little different.” That comment likely references the four trades Nashville made ahead of last year’s Deadline, used to acquire Anthony Beauvillier, Jeremy Hanzel, Jason Zucker, and Wade Allison. Hanzel is the only one of the four still in the Predators organization.

If the Predators acquire anyone, Trotz says they’ll be looking for players with term on their contract, in an effort to build around their emerging young players rather than replacing them in the lineup. Both Zachary L’Heureux and Fedor Svechkov have been notable pieces of the Predators’ lineup at some point this season. L’Heureux has scored nine points in 34 games – officially marking his rookie season – while Svechkov has four points in 13 games and was returned to the AHL. Svechkov is joined by other top prospects Joakim Kemell and Reid Schaefer in the minor leagues. Kemell has scored 18 points in 30 AHL games, while Scahefer – who has been out of the lineup since early December with an upper-body injury – has 14 points in 19 games. Both players could also be candidates for NHL ice time sooner rather than later, especially if the Predators continue to move out veteran pieces.

The Predators will be in a bind at the Deadline, no matter if they choose to buy or sell. The team has five picks in the top two rounds of the 2025 NHL Draft, plenty of ammunition to bring in a potential difference-maker, though that’s a hard sell for a team so far away from playoff contention. Nashville seems more likely to trim some lineup weight by moving players like Thomas Novak and Michael McCarron. Both players have offered stout depth behind Nashville’s presumed stars, though neither has reached 10 points this season despite playing 33 and 34 games respectively. A more hopeful team could see the duo’s slumping scoring as a chance to buy low on two potentially impactful depth forwards ahead of their own playoff push.

Predators Recall Kieffer Bellows

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The Predators have added some extra depth up front heading into their game against Washington.  The team announced that they have recalled winger Kieffer Bellows from AHL Milwaukee.  Nashville had two open roster spots so no corresponding moves needed to be made.

The 26-year-old spent last season on a minor-league deal with Toronto.  He was quite productive with the Marlies, tallying 27 goals and 22 assists in 52 games in his first extended AHL stint since the 2018-19 campaign.  That helped him earn some NHL interest last summer as he signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Preds on the third day of free agency, a deal that pays $775K in the NHL and $225K in the minors.

Bellows cleared waivers at the start of training camp and has been with the Admirals all season.  He hasn’t been quite as productive as last season but still has 12 goals and 10 assists in 31 outings, good for second on the team in scoring; their top scorer, Vinnie Hinostroza, was brought up in late December.

Bellows has 95 career NHL appearances under his belt.  Most of those came with the Islanders but his most recent stint at the top level came with Philadelphia who claimed him off waivers in 2022-23 (before non-tendering him that summer).  Between the two teams, Bellows has 14 goals and 14 assists along with 199 hits while averaging 11 minutes a night of playing time.

Predators To Loan Austin Roest Back To WHL When Healthy

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  • While Predators prospect Austin Roest is eligible to play in the minors this season, WHL Everett announced that Nashville has informed them that they will return him to junior once he recovers from his injury sustained back in training camp. The 20-year-old was a sixth-round pick in 2023 and has already signed his entry-level deal.  Roest has surpassed the 70-point mark in the last two seasons with the Silvertips and will get a final few months with them before turning pro next season.

Predators’ Luke Evangelista Out Four Weeks With Lower-Body Injury

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Predators winger Luke Evangelista will be sidelined for the next four weeks with a lower-body injury, head coach Barry Trotz told Robby Stanley of NHL.com on Thursday.

Evangelista, 22, left Tuesday’s loss to the Jets in the first period after his right leg got tangled up while being hit by Winnipeg defenseman Neal Pionk. Jonathan Marchessault and Steven Stamkos also got banged up in the game but aren’t carrying injury designations today, per Trotz, and haven’t been ruled for Saturday’s tilt against the Capitals.

Trotz also gave updates on some already-injured-reserve-bound players, telling Stanley that defensemen Jeremy Lauzon and Adam Wilsby have been downgraded from day-to-day to week-to-week with their lower-body and upper-body injuries, respectively.

Evangelista has not yet joined the pair on IR, although he’s definitely eligible for a placement since he’ll miss more than seven days. With two open roster spots entering the day, the Predators have plenty of recall flexibility and don’t need to open a spot yet.

Through 39 games this season, Evangelista was struggling to capture the form that placed him ninth in Calder Trophy voting last season. Like many of his Nashville teammates, he’s struggling to finish. He’s shooting at just 5.3%, good for four goals through 39 games. He had 16 tallies in 80 games last season while finishing at a 9.3% clip, ranking fourth on the team with 172 shots on goal.

Evangelista has also been one of the Preds’ most frequent shooters this year, ranking sixth with 75. He’s seeing less usage per game, however, averaging 12:51 per night compared to 13:57 last season.

The 6’0″, 183-lb forward was a second-round pick by Nashville in 2020 and has 68 points in 143 NHL games to date. 14 of those points have come this season, placing him seventh on the fledgling club in scoring.

Evangelista has spent most of his time this season on a line with Mark Jankowski and Thomas Novak, which has been Nashville’s best unit at controlling possession quality at 5-on-5 with a 59.7% expected goals share, per MoneyPuck. It hasn’t translated to actual results, though, with the trio getting outscored 4-2. They’ve scored just 1.04 goals per 60 minutes compared to 3.84 expected goals per 60 minutes.

The pending restricted free agent will be replaced in the lineup by Zachary L’Heureux, who’s eligible to play after serving a three-game suspension for slew-footing Wild captain Jared Spurgeon on New Year’s Eve.

Trotz: Predators Receiving Trade Interest In Edstrom

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In an appearance on 102.5 The Game (audio link), Predators GM Barry Trotz indicated that he has been getting calls about prospect center David Edstrom.  One of the key pieces coming to Nashville in the Yaroslav Askarov trade, Edstrom is coming off a strong showing for Sweden at the World Juniors that saw him pick up six points in seven games while he has 13 points in 22 games with SHL Frolunda as well.  One of their better prospects, it’d be difficult to see them flipping Edstrom so soon unless the Preds drastically turn their fortunes around in the coming weeks to become buyers at the trade deadline.

Predators Reassign Two Players To The AHL

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The Nashville Predators announced ahead of their game tonight against Winnipeg that they’ve reassigned forward Ozzy Wiesblatt and defenseman Kevin Gravel to the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League. The news could mean that forward Tommy Novak and defenseman Adam Wilsby are ready to return to the lineup after missing several games due to injury.

Gravel heads back to the AHL after he was recalled yesterday, the Admirals captain has had two recalls this season with his other stint coming from December 12th through December 17th. In three games with Nashville this season, the 32-year-old has a single assist while averaging 18:19 of ice time per game. Down in the AHL, Gravel has a goal and four assists in 25 games with Milwaukee.

Wiesblatt is just a week removed from getting his first NHL call-up, which resulted in him dressing in two games with the Predators. The 22-year-old made his NHL debut on Friday against Vancouver and played again on Saturday night against Calgary. Neither game went particularly well for the former first-round pick as Wiesblatt was held pointless and was dramatically overmatched against NHL competition. Wiesblatt averaged 10:12 of ice time over the two contests and posted four hits with a blocked shot, however, his underlying numbers were ugly as Nashville controlled possession just 20.6% of the time he was on the ice.

As bad as Wiesblatt’s CF% was, it was a small sample size of just two games, and his deployment was complicated as he started just 7.1% of his shifts in the offensive zone.

Predators Recall Kevin Gravel

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The Predators have recalled veteran defenseman Kevin Gravel for the second time in as many months, the team announced Monday. Jeremy Lauzon, who’s missed the last two games with a lower-body injury, has landed on injured reserve in a corresponding transaction. The move was previously reflected in yesterday’s AHL transactions log but wasn’t made official by the team until today.

Recalling Gravel gives Nashville an extra defender on hand for tomorrow’s game against the Jets. They’re down two right now with Lauzon and Adam Wilsby (upper body, day-to-day) both on injured reserve.

In fact, Gravel projects to be the only extra healthy skater available for Nashville on Tuesday. The Preds are also carrying just 12 healthy forwards with Zachary L’Heureux serving the final game of his suspension for slew-footing Wild captain Jared Spurgeon and Thomas Novak dealing with an upper-body injury despite remaining on the active roster.

Gravel appeared in three games for Nashville last month while injuries plagued Lauzon, Alexandre Carrier and Roman Josi. The 32-year-old recorded an assist and a +2 rating while averaging 18:19 per contest, the highest usage of his seven-year, 135-game NHL career.

It was Gravel’s first NHL appearance since skating in 23 games with the Preds in the 2022-23 season. The Michigan native has spent the last three years in the organization, primarily playing for the Milwaukee Admirals, their AHL affiliate. He’s made 25 AHL appearances this year, posting five points and a -4 rating. He served as the club’s captain last season.

He’ll remain in Nashville/Milwaukee for at least one more season after he inked a two-year extension midway through the 2023-24 campaign. The 6’4″ lefty was a fifth-round pick of the Kings back in 2010 and has also logged games for the Oilers and Maple Leafs in addition to his time in Hollywood and Nashville.

Lauzon last played on Dec. 31 against Minnesota. He’ll sit out tomorrow’s contest but is eligible to return on Saturday against the Capitals if his health allows. He also missed 10 games with a lower-body issue in November and December, but has one assist and 127 hits in 28 appearances this season when healthy.

Gravel Recalled, Lauzon To IR

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The Predators have recalled defenseman Kevin Gravel from AHL Milwaukee, per the AHL’s transactions log.  He’ll take the place of Jeremy Lauzon on the active roster who has been moved back to injured reserve.  Gravel has an assist in three games with Nashville so far this season but is likely to be in the seventh defender role for the time being.  He also has five points in 25 games with the Admirals.  Lauzon, meanwhile, just returned from injured reserve midway through last month, getting into six games before being sidelined with a lower-body injury once again.  He has one assist and 127 hits in 28 games thus far in just under 18 minutes a night of playing time.

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