Nashville Predators Recall Three Players
After trading away three players in the last few days, the Nashville Predators have begun to turn over their roster towards younger players. The team announced today that they have recalled center Fedor Svechkov, winger Reid Schaefer, and defenseman Ryan Ufko from their AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals.
Each recalled player corresponds with a veteran the Predators have dealt away this week. The Predators traded big center Michael McCarron to the Minnesota Wild, and in doing so, lost their regular fourth-line center and a player who ranked No. 1 among team forwards in short-handed ice time per game. 
Svechkov, 22, is a 2021 first-round pick whose game has long been built around a foundation of strong two-way play. While he has only played spot duty on the penalty kill at the NHL level, he’s seen more regular short-handed time at the AHL level. It’s possible the move of McCarron is what opens the door for Svechkov to get a longer look in that role with the Predators.
Svechkov got into 52 NHL games for the Predators last season, and had some impressive moments. He finished with 17 points in 52 games, but looked the part as an NHL player.
Finding a rhythm early this season was a challenge for Svechkov, but the more consistent role afforded by McCarron’s departure could aid in his development at the game’s highest level. Worth noting is the fact that his three-year entry-level contract is set to expire this summer.
By clearing the way for Svechkov to play a more regular NHL role, the Predators will be able to enter negotiations on Svechkov’s next deal with a stronger sense of where he is in his development. Adding a second-round pick from the Wild in the process certainly doesn’t hurt, as well.
The recall of Schaefer, a winger, more directly corresponds with the trade of Cole Smith to the Vegas Golden Knights. Like McCarron, Smith was a fixture on the Nashville penalty kill. And like Svechkov, Schaefer has gotten some regular time on the Milwaukee penalty kill. It’s possible he earns some of Smith’s vacated short-handed minutes, though some of that time could also go to the energetic Ozzy Wiesblatt, who has averaged 0:34 time on ice per game on the penalty kill this season.
Originally a first-round pick of the Edmonton Oilers, Schaefer landed in Nashville as part of the 2023 Mattias Ekholm trade, late in the tenure of Hall of Fame GM David Poile. Schaefer may have more offense to give than Smith did, as he has 15 goals and 28 points in 31 AHL games this season, to go along with six points in 27 NHL games. Smith’s career-high in terms of offensive production came in 2023-24, when he scored nine goals and 23 points in 80 games.
Finally, the recall of Ufko corresponds with the team’s trade of Nick Blankenburg to the Colorado Avalanche. Ufko has arguably been the biggest riser in Nashville’s system this season. A bit undersized, like Blankenburg, Ufko leads the Admirals in scoring this season with 44 points in 50 games, a notable uptick from the 30 points in 72 games he managed last year. He quarterbacks the top power play unit in Milwaukee, and could fill Blankenburg’s vacated role as the quarterback of Nashville’s second power play unit. Veteran Brady Skjei could also see time there, though the Predators may be more inclined to test their younger players in that role.
While some Predators fans may have been discouraged by the Predators’ move to sell off veteran talent in the midst of a playoff race, the reality is their recent moves could very well be in the service of building a contending team in the long-term.
By turning over some key roles, especially on special teams, to promising young talents, the team can more confidently chart its course into the future. Despite the fact that he has announced his upcoming retirement, Predators GM Barry Trotz appears to be focused on investing in the Predators’ future, stocking the team with additional draft picks and providing greater opportunity for key prospects.
Photos courtesy of Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images
Erik Haula Generating Trade Interest
- For teams not interested in paying the price for Robert Thomas or Vincent Trocheck, the Nashville Predators have another center option available for trade. According to ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, Erik Haula is drawing interest from around the league. Haula, a pending unrestricted free agent, has scored nine goals and 30 points in 61 games for Nashville this season, averaging 16:38 of ice time. Additionally, Haula was impressive for Team Finland at the Olympics, scoring three goals and six points in six games, helping his country to a bronze medal.
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Colorado Avalanche Acquire Nick Blankenburg
The Colorado Avalanche have acquired defenseman Nick Blankenburg from the Nashville Predators, according to an official team announcement. The Predators are receiving a 2027 fifth-round pick in exchange for the defenseman.
The move continues Nashville’s recent efforts to add future draft picks in exchange for roster players. Fourth-liners Michael McCarron and Cole Smith were dealt yesterday. In these three deals, the Predators have added a second-round pick, a third-round pick, and a fifth-rounder, albeit by bolstering the depth of Western Conference playoff contenders in the process.
In adding Blankenburg, the Avalanche have added a capable NHL defenseman who has enjoyed the best years of his professional career in Nashville.
While the 27-year-old is undersized, standing 5’9″ 177 pounds, he plays at the kind of pace that will allow him to fit in seamlessly in Colorado. He has 21 points in 49 games this season, playing 17:57 per night with the Predators.
He’s appeared on both sides of special teams, serving as the team’s second power play quarterback (behind star Roman Josi) and is averaging 1:36 per game on the penalty kill. When Josi missed significant time last season due to injury, it was Blankenburg who stepped up and spent time quarterbacking the team’s top power play unit.
The way Colorado’s defense is constructed, it is unlikely he plays as large a role. The right side of their defense is already well-stocked, with Cale Makar, Sam Malinski, and Brent Burns already in the fold. With Devon Toews, Josh Manson, and Brett Kulak on the other side, the Avalanche have an enviable collection of talent on their back end. Adding Blankenburg, presumably in the seventh-defenseman role, only adds to their stockpile at the position. If an injury hits, the team will have a quality player ready to step in and fill the role of the injured blueliner.
From the Predators’ perspective, the deal adds a draft pick for a pending UFA and concludes what has been a solid developmental success story for the Predators.
Blankenburg was a great find for the team’s hockey operations department in the summer of 2024. He had lost his NHL role with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023-24, playing in the AHL for the first time in his career. He signed a two-year deal in Nashville that contained a two-way structure in its first year, something that ultimately didn’t factor in too much as Blankenburg only played 13 games for the Milwaukee Admirals.
The Predators were able to find an NHL role that was a fit for Blankenburg’s skill set, and allowed him to occupy that role and rediscover his place as a full-time NHL player. A fifth-round pick isn’t a massive return for Blankenburg, but it’s still an additional draft pick to add to their rapidly growing stockpile. And the value of rewarding Blankenburg by giving him a chance to join one of the NHL’s top teams cannot be discounted – if he plays well in Colorado, and gets into playoff games, he’ll enter the free agent market on very strong ground.
It might be curious to see Nashville trading away so many established players while they are in the midst of a playoff chase, but the reality is the Predators have one of the better track records across the league as developers of NHL talent.
While elite talent has sometimes eluded them, they have, more often than not, been able to rely on their pipeline of talent from AHL Milwaukee to provide them with players capable of taking on specific roles as bottom-six players or third-pairing defensemen. The trades of the bottom-six forwards from yesterday will allow for greater opportunity for developing players such as Ozzy Wiesblatt and Reid Schaefer at the NHL level. The deals should also allow for promising center Fedor Svechkov to re-join the NHL roster.
Today’s trade accomplishes a similar role on defense. The Admirals have been led in scoring this season by a defenseman, 22-year-old Ryan Ufko, and he could get a look in the NHL as a result of this trade. It could also mean greater opportunity for Justin Barron, who the Predators acquired last season from the Montreal Canadiens.
In any case, the Predators have not let this season’s solid short-term on-ice results deter them from building towards a clear long-term vision. Their moves in recent days have seemingly been concrete steps forward in service of that vision, even if they might somewhat hurt their odds of reaching the playoffs this season.
Photos courtesy of Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
Predators Sign Viggo Gustafsson To Entry-Level Deal
The Predators announced they’ve signed defense prospect Viggo Gustafsson to a three-year, entry-level deal beginning next season. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Gustafsson, 19, was a third-round pick in 2024. The 6’2″, 192-lb lefty is touted as a physical piece with some viable upside as a third-pairing option, but not much more. As such, he was ranked as the #24 prospect in Nashville’s system by Elite Prospects entering the season and wasn’t ranked anywhere else.
He has gotten plenty of minutes at the pro level in his native Sweden since his draft year, though. He’s played exclusively in the professional circuit this year, albeit in the second division HockeyAllsvenskan with AIK. There, he’s featuring mostly as a third-pairing piece and has seven assists with a -4 rating in 38 games. It’s worth noting the national team takes enough stock in his physical shutdown game to keep him rostered at the World Juniors for the past two years, but he only suited up twice for them in this year’s tournament.
The Preds were under no urgency to sign him, holding his rights through June 2028. Still, they’ve liked enough of what they’ve seen from Gustafsson overseas since draft day to make an initial commitment. As he’s under 24 years old and was drafted outside of the first round, he must first be offered back to his Swedish club if he doesn’t make the team out of camp before they’re eligible to assign him to the AHL. He will be a restricted free agent for the first time following the 2028-29 season and is under team control through 2033-34.
Golden Knights Acquire Cole Smith
The Nashville Predators have made another move tonight, sending forward Cole Smith to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a 2028 third round pick and defense prospect Christoffer Sedoff. The trade has been confirmed by both Nashville, as well as Vegas.
A fourth line winger with strong defensive attributes, Vegas inherits Smith’s $1MM cap hit until the end of the season, where he’ll become an unrestricted free agent. The Golden Knights currently rank 11th in the league in penalty killing, not necessarily an issue, but they add a relentless presence who fans may find similar to Keegan Kolesar. Smith will also reunite with former Preds teammate Colton Sissons, the two forming an effective fourth line over the past few seasons.
Always right up against the salary cap, Vegas has had to lean on unheralded forwards such as Cole Reinhardt and Braeden Bowman to round out their lineup. Adding Smith offers them a high character winger with experience, hungry to add to his just five career playoff games to this point.
It was a strange night for the newest Golden Knight, as he played just three seconds against Columbus, clearly with a trade in the works. At one point Smith left the bench, the team giving him stick taps out of respect, only to return and sit for the rest of the game. At one point Insider Frank Seravalli mentioned Tampa Bay as a suitor, but instead it was Vegas who closed the deal.
The 30-year-old Smith’s efforts rarely show up on the score sheet, with 10 points in 41 games this season, and a career high of 23 points set two years ago. He also is not the most swift skater at 6’3″, but the hallmark of the Minnesota native’s game is work ethic. As far as these types of players go, sometimes their possession metrics aren’t so pretty, but Smith offers a respectable 48.8% corsi for at five on five. Such is slightly below average, but he is never expected to drive play at even strength. Capable of dropping the gloves when needed, Smith has reached the 60 penalty minute mark over the past few seasons but is not a vicious, undisciplined player.
Undrafted out of the University of North Dakota, Smith has had an unlikely path to the NHL, and still is a player not widely known across the league. Never recording more than 18 points in a season in college, he caught on with Nashville, even making a short stop in the ECHL in 2020-21. Smith broke out with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals in 2021-22, putting up 42 points, production far above anything seen at North Dakota.
From there, the winger soon became a full time player for the Predators, eventually appearing in 271 games in gold, where he notched 62 points. Beloved by Predators management and teammates alike, Smith, like his former linemate Michael McCarron who was dealt earlier tonight, was likely considered to be kept around for the long haul. Instead, GM Barry Trotz brings in a nice return for a fourth line player who came to the organization as a free agent.
As part of the deal, Nashville acquires 24-year-old Sedoff, taking back a contract. The 6’2″ lefty was undrafted out of the WHL, catching on with Vegas where he’s played the past three seasons with AHL Henderson. This season he has four assists in 38 games, and as a pending restricted free agent, he has limited NHL upside. Sedoff will likely finish the spring with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL.
Now missing two vital pieces from their bottom six, eyes turn to Nashville’s more attractive pieces; headlined by Ryan O’Reilly, but more likely, Michael Bunting and Erik Haula. The team is still in the Wild Card mix but after a tough day for the team’s morale, the team may wave the white flag and look to the future especially considering the strong returns they’ve netted in deals so far. Trotz is loading up on futures, now up to six third round picks between 2027 and 2028. Prospect Reid Schaefer, acquired from Edmonton in the Mattias Ekholm deal, will likely slot in for Smith for the rest of the campaign.
Meanwhile, Smith’s new team takes on Detroit in the Motor City tomorrow, but most likely, he will debut on the Vegas strip Friday night against the Wild, lining up against his former counterpart in McCarron.
Image Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports
TSN’s Darren Dreger was the first to break the trade.
Latest On Cole Smith
Already having sent out Michael McCarron, another pending free agent Predator could be on the move soon. Forward Cole Smith took just a three second shift in tonight’s game against Columbus, at one point leaving for the locker room, but eventually returning to the bench, still not playing. Insider Frank Seravalli reported that Tampa Bay is showing interest.
The undrafted 30-year-old has become a mainstay on Nashville’s fourth line over the past four seasons, where he’s played a total 230 games with 62 points. At 6’3”, he is a relentless penalty killing winger likely to bring back later-round draft capital.
A high character player, the Minnesota native would be missed by Nashville, but cashing in on their depth pieces while keeping the bigger stars still gives them a shot in the playoffs, although they’ll have to overhaul their shorthanded unit.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Along with their opponents making news today, the Blue Jackets are missing two key pieces tonight as captain Boone Jenner and star Zach Werenski were inactive, as noted by Jeff Svoboda, official team reporter. Such news can raise eyebrows in early March, but it’s absolutely not for any suspicious reasons. Werenski is thought to be ill, while Jenner is day-to-day for maintenance, as confirmed by the team. Both could return as soon as Thursday, their Jackets set to host Florida as they continue their push toward the postseason. Until then, Kent Johnson, a scratch in recent days, re-enters the lineup.
- As another headline which could be misinterpreted, Capitals star Aliaksei Protas is absent tonight, but it’s due to personal reasons, as reported by Tom Gulitti of NHL.com. The 25-year-old has missed three games this year, otherwise posting 42 points in 59 games, and reaching the 20 goal mark last week. His Capitals, just shy of Wild Card range, are back in action Saturday in Boston, likely to welcome Protas back then.
Wild Acquire Michael McCarron
Moments ago, the Nashville Predators announced that center Michael McCarron wouldn’t play tonight against Columbus for what they called “roster management purposes”. Sure enough, he has been dealt to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for a 2028 second round pick, per Michael Russo of The Athletic. The Wild as well as the Predators have officially announced the trade.
Once a first round pick in 2013 by the Montreal Canadiens, the 30-year-old McCarron grinded away in the AHL for several years, emerging as a full time NHLer in his late twenties. At 6’6″, he is strong at the face-off dot, currently with a 52.8% win rate, coming in north of 54% last season.
McCarron showed unusual scoring touch in 2023-24, recording 12 goals and 22 points in his best season, but since then has put up numbers synonymous with a pure fourth liner. He has five goals and 12 points in 59 games across the campaign. At even strength, McCarron’s possession metrics are unsurprisingly below average, hovering around the 46% mark in recent years. Yet GM Bill Guerin is not adding the Michigan native with those traits in mind.
Minnesota inherits McCarron’s reasonable $900k cap hit which expires this summer. Rumored to be after a top six center, Guerin still has the space to make another splash, but the Wild are limited in assets as they go all in. After tonight’s deal, they don’t have a second round pick in the next three drafts, also losing this year’s first in the Quinn Hughes blockbuster.
Acquired by Nashville from Montreal in 2020 in exchange for Laurent Dauphin, a top AHL scorer who departed the Habs organization but has actually returned to Laval, McCarron became a fan favorite in Nashville. Even if they move forward on a rebuild, they could have re-signed the towering grinder as he fills an important role. However, in a seller’s market, a second round pick was enough to entice GM Barry Trotz to send McCarron to a divisional rival, although they’ll have to wait two years to use it.
The Predators lack anybody in the cupboard to replace McCarron’s role, but October waiver claim Tyson Jost figures to slot in at 4C from here on out. Nashville will likely shop for a new physical face-off specialist this summer in free agency.
A steep price to pay, Minnesota has again supplemented their bottom six, having claimed Robby Fabbri off waivers from St. Louis yesterday. The Wild have struggled with defensive zone face-offs, and McCarron offers more of a mean streak than Nico Sturm. He has reached the 100 penalty minute mark in each of the last two seasons, and currently at 73, it’s not impossible he could keep the streak going especially while motivated to endear himself to the Wild faithful.
Wild head coach John Hynes likely gave the green light on the acquisition, reuniting with McCarron, who broke through in 2021-22 with 51 games as a Predator under Hynes. He could also play alongside Yakov Trenin, a teammate then, the two hitting everything in sight.
McCarron could make his Wild debut as soon as Friday, as the group travels to Vegas.
Image Credit: James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images
Predators’ Adam Wilsby Out Week-To-Week
Nashville Predators defenseman Adam Wilsby will be unavailable for Monday’s afternoon matchup against the Detroit Red Wings. He has been designated as out week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Wilsby left Nashville’s Saturday loss to the Dallas Stars in the second period. It was not clear when he sustained his injury.
The Predators will have to shake up their blue-line with Wilsby on the shelf. Nicklaus Perbix and Nicolas Hague earned extra minutes to fill the gap on Saturday but it will be Justin Barron who benefits most from the lineup hole. Barron only appeared in two games in the month of February. He recorded one assist, a plus-two, and three shots on net while filling a bottom-pair role. On the year, Barron has racked up five assists and a minus-four in 32 games. Those marks are a slight dip from the 12 points and minus-14 that Barron managed in 45 games with the Predators last season, after a December trade moved him to Nashville from the Montreal Canadiens.
Barron should be able to match Wilsby’s scoring production if he rediscovers last year’s totals. Wilsby has 12 points in 45 games of his own this season, coupled with a minus-three. He has proven to be an impactful defensive-defenseman down Nashville’s lineup, using a big frame and active stick to defend the rush and spark breakouts. Wilsby is in his first season in a full-time, NHL role after breaking into the league last season. He split 2024-25 between 23 games in the NHL and 13 games in the AHL, netting five points in each league. Nashville will get a chance to test the younger Barron in the short future but will likely move back to Wilsby once he’s back to full health.
Nashville Predators Hesitant, But Need To Sell
With the trade deadline five days away, bubble teams in both conferences are faced with the difficult balance between buying and selling. One such club, the Nashville Predators, have some intriguing assets but as they sit one spot out of a Wild Card spot, it may be a quieter week than fans hope. Insider Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet discussed the dilemma on last Friday’s episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast. With GM Barry Trotz stepping down, and new ownership coming in, throwing in the towel on the season while close to the playoffs may be hard to justify.
The Predators’ most valuable trade asset is likely Ryan O’Reilly. However, as mentioned by Friedman on February 28th’s edition of Saturday Headlines, while teams are trying to tempt Nashville to make a move, they’re treating the veteran Stanley Cup winner with deserved respect, giving him control of the situation. It is thought that O’Reilly does not wish to move.
O’Reilly, 35, plays a vital role on the Predators, leading the team with 57 points in 59 games, a factor on both ends of the ice. Outside of him, Nashville is extremely thin down the middle. Such is an issue which will need to be addressed this summer, but until then, losing him would effectively be a punt on the season. O’Reilly is still signed through next season at a steal of a $4.5MM cap hit, meaning a deal could be revisited this time next year, but now is a time where the Predators could sell at peak value, with a bidding war, and finally committing to a rebuild.
Outside of O’Reilly, Jonathan Marchessault and Steven Stamkos are consistently thrown around. However, just a few days ago, Stamkos emphasized that he has no intention of waiving his no-movement clause. That’s hardly an issue, as the future Hall of Famer just hit the 30 goal mark on the year, already surpassing last year’s 27 total, as Stamkos played in all 82 games. Signed through 2027-28, it’s likely Stamkos will end up somewhere else before he hangs up his skates, but it won’t be now. The 36-year-old is a key leader for the group, performance aside.
Meanwhile, Marchessault would welcome a fresh start. He has just 17 points on the year, the Conn Smythe winner at times deployed alongside fourth line grinders Cole Smith and Michael McCarron. The issue is that the 35-year-old is signed a year longer than Stamkos, at $5.5MM, to go with trade protection. It’s difficult to imagine a scenario where the Predators could get out of the contract without taking back an unfavorable one, nor using their final salary retention spot, due to the contract duration. Even if the return is not pretty, a move would be in their best interest, doing the veteran right and allowing 21-year-old top prospect Joakim Kemell to finally have a chance.
Otherwise, defensemen Nicklaus Perbix has been reported as to having a market, along with Erik Haula, Michael Bunting, and McCarron. While they’d bring considerably less than a player such as O’Reilly, at the very least, Trotz would be wise to cash in on his pending UFA forwards. Keeping all of them, along with Perbix, in the hopes of a playoff run would be shortsighted.
The Predators have a -28 goal differential, sitting with a 27-24-8 record. Even if they can squeak into the playoffs, they’d be rewarded with a match-up against Colorado or Vegas, an uphill battle to say the least.
Never wanting to give up is admirable of Trotz, yet at the same time, his Predators have not won a playoff round since 2018, while also having just one top five selection in the past decade (Brady Martin, 5th, 2025). Throughout his tenure as head coach of the franchise from 1998-2014, Nashville always fought into the playoffs, but were outlasted by franchises with superior talent. Now, those rivals have gone through entire tear downs and rebuilds, setting themselves up for another decade of success while the Predators remain in the murky middle.
Trotz has assembled a deep prospect core which was kick-started by the team’s first wave of selling off, but they still lack the high end talent to get over the hump. It may be an issue left for the next GM to solve. Set to walk away sooner than expected, Trotz is likely tempted by the idea of a storybook ending, but he has the opportunity to taking advantage of a seller’s market and close the book on his 19 years with the organization set up for the future, even if it means hard decisions this week.
Image Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
Predators’ Semyon Chistyakov Signs One-Year Extension In KHL
KHL defenseman Semyon Chistyakov, whose NHL rights are held by the Nashville Predators, has signed a one-year contract extension with his current club, Avangard Omsk.
Chistyakov signed a two-year extension in June that runs until the end of the KHL’s 2026-27 season, and now today’s news means he’ll be under contract through 2027-28.
Avangard GM Alexei Sopin called the 24-year-old blueliner “a key figure not only for the club but for the entire city,” and named him as a core part of the team’s roster. Avangard currently sit in second place in the KHL’s Eastern Conference, and the team’s near-term competitiveness likely heightened the level of urgency the club felt in its efforts to sign Chistyakov to an early extension.
The move is relevant from an NHL perspective, as it pushes back the date that the Predators could sign Chistyakov by another year. According to PuckPedia, the club maintains an indefinite exclusive right to sign Chistyakov.
While it’s never a guarantee how a player might translate his game from the KHL to the NHL, Chistyakov offers many valuable on-ice qualities that lend confidence to the idea that he could be a capable NHL defenseman. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman ranked Chistyakov the No. 14 prospect in Nashville’s system back in 2023, calling the player “an excellent skater who is physical and competes at a high level,” while also raising some questions about his size. Chistyakov is a well-regarded prospect dating back to his draft year, when he was ranked the No. 16 international skater by NHL Central Scouting.
Over the last two years, Chistyakov has become one of the KHL’s better defensemen, further lending credibility to the idea of those public-facing scouts that he could be a useful NHL player. Chistyakov, who is listed at 5’11”, 198 pounds, enjoyed a breakout 2024-25 campaign. He led the KHL in goal scoring by a defenseman with 19 tallies, and finished with 40 points in 68 games. He was an all-star that year, and even scored seven points in 13 playoff games.
While Chistyakov’s production is down this season (he has five goals, 21 points in 54 games), as is his ice time (he’s averaging 18:35 per game in 2025-26 compared to over 20 minutes per night last season), he remains a prospect who could provide legitimate value to an organization if he crosses the Atlantic. Despite his offense declining, he remains a contributor on Omsk’s penalty kill, for example.
Unfortunately for Nashville, Chistyakov’s recent extension signing pushes back the date he could join Nashville/Milwaukee by at least another year.