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
Wild, Flyers Swap Boris Katchouk, Roman Schmidt
The Wild announced this evening that they’ve acquired defenseman Roman Schmidt from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for forward Boris Katchouk. Both players will report to their respective AHL clubs, sharing the distinction of being former notable Tampa Bay Lightning draft selections.
Even more interesting, both players started the campaign with the Lightning organization, being traded away separately, and now swapped for each other, as pointed out by Eduardo A. Encina of The Tampa Bay Times.
Katchouk, 27, is the more recognizable name in the deal with 179 NHL games under his belt. Selected in the second round by Tampa in the 2016 draft, the Vancouver native was thought to have safe middle six potential with raw scoring upside. Much like several other forwards chosen in his range of that draft, things did not materialize for Katchouk, who is now a full time AHLer. He was part of the Brandon Hagel trade in 2022, managing to skate in 117 games as a Blackhawk from 2021-24, but recording just 26 points. Katchouk’s possession metrics at even strength were far below league average, albeit on a hardcore rebuilding team.
He was then claimed off waivers by Ottawa in 2024, notching four points in 21 games but not getting another contract. Katchouk spent all of 2024-25 in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he had his best professional season, with 49 points in 67 games. The efforts brought him back to his original club, but after just a few months, he was traded to the Wild organization for Michael Milne, who was a former third rounder who managed to skate in a game for the Wild last year.
Set to finish the season with Lehigh Valley, Katchouk departs the AHL’s bottom ranked team in Iowa, but his new club is not necessarily a contender, as the Flyers farmhands are ranked 22nd.
Positive news considering their place in the standings, meanwhile Iowa gets younger with the acquisition of Schmidt. The 23-year-old is also under team control as a restricted free agent this summer. Drafted in the third round back in 2021 by Tampa Bay, Schmidt was traded in early December for Ethan Samson, a fringe sixth round drafted prospect. A Michigan native out of the OHL, Schmidt has just one helper across 29 AHL contests this year between Syracuse and Lehigh Valley. A 6’5″ righty, he brings physicality and racks up PIMs. He is a longshot to become an NHLer at this point, but Schmidt brings a boost to the struggling Iowa Wild who have been thin on the back end.
Injury Notes: Stone, Jones, Eriksson Ek, Foligno
Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone left this afternoon’s action in Pittsburgh and did not return. After the game head coach Bruce Cassidy told reporters, including SinBin.vegas, it was upper-body, with no real update until tomorrow.
It seemed to be an innocuous play, where Kris Letang simply bumped into him for position in the neutral zone, but Stone went to the bench immediately. His day ended after just 6:06 on the ice. It’s not clear at this time if the ailment is related to his wrist issue which has bothered the star throughout the season.
When healthy, the 33-year-old has continued to play at an elite level, with 60 points in just 42 games. Already placed on LTIR once earlier this year, as well as in the past, it will be curious to see what comes next for the veteran with the trade deadline looming.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Panthers defenseman Seth Jones was spotted this morning at practice in a regular jersey, per Jameson Olive, Director of Digital Platforms for the team. The 31-year-old is working his way back from his upper-body injury which happened during the Winter Classic and has now shed the non-contact jersey. Unfortunately, the ailment cost the Texas native a spot on the eventual Olympic gold winning Team USA, as Jackson LaCombe took his place. Nonetheless, Jones will provide a big boost to a Panthers group which is seeking to defy the odds and claw their way back into the playoffs after a season ravaged by injuries. The veteran figures to return sometime this week, but Florida is currently on a four game road trip running through Friday.
- Minnesota Wild forward Joel Eriksson Ek is good to go today against the Blues, head coach John Hynes shared, later posted by the team. The center took a high stick close to his eye on Friday, the team recalling Tyler Pitlick in case he was unable to play. Eriksson Ek has played in 54 of the club’s 60 games so far, posting 42 points. Pitlick is still in the lineup however, as Marcus Foligno is absent with a lower-body injury per the team. The 34-year-old has shown signs of offensive regression this year with just six goals in 48 games, but he’s still a vital leader for the group, 77 games away from reaching the 1,000 mark. Foligno could return as soon as Tuesday against Tampa Bay.
Kings Recall Kenny Connors, Loan Angus Booth To AHL
Somewhat overshadowed after firing their coach this morning, the Los Angeles Kings called up prospect Kenny Connors from AHL Ontario, while Angus Booth has been loaned back in a corresponding transaction. The news was shared by the Ontario Reign (Twitter Link).
Selected in the fourth round of the 2022 draft by Los Angeles, Connors concluded his collegiate career at UMass-Amherst, entering the professional stage this year. The 22-year-old has 29 points in 49 AHL games, tied for fifth on the team, and also tied for 10th among league rookies. Prior to the campaign, Connors came just short of the club’s top 10 prospect list by Steven Ellis of The Daily Faceoff, but his AHL performance since then has been hard to miss.
Connors earned a call up in late January, but was unable to get into a game, as he still awaits his NHL debut. Disappointingly, he was scratched against his hometown team the Flyers, and was quietly reassigned not long after.
Never exploding offensively at UMass-Amherst, with a career high of 29 points in his final college season, the Pennsylvania native’s two-way acumen has resulted in a quick call up. Even if his expectation shattering point totals don’t last, Connors has the tools to become a solid role player for the Kings.
On the other hand, Booth is headed back down after also not yet making his debut. The defenseman was actually selected 13 spots after Connors in 2022. He was recalled just yesterday, as Andrei Kuzmenko landed on injured reserve with a week-to-week designation. Booth simply served as an extra body, not expected to play, where he’ll now return to Ontario where he’s posted 10 points and 26 penalty minutes in 42 games. Still just 21, the Montreal native plays a steady shutdown role, perhaps needing to build more strength to emerge as a full time NHLer.
Now set to host Colorado tomorrow night with Jim Hiller gone and associate D.J. Smith stepping in as interim head coach, Connors could finally get a look in the team’s bottom six sometime this week.
Penguins Recall Filip Hallander From Conditioning Loan
3/1: Pittsburgh has recalled Hallander from his conditioning loan. He scored one goal in three games with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Hallander will remain on injured reserve, but has been recalled to undergo evaluation and testing as he recovers from blood clots earlier in the season.
2/18: The Penguins announced Wednesday that they’ve assigned forward Filip Hallander to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a conditioning loan. Since Hållander is on standard injured reserve and not long-term injured reserve, the loan can last for up to two weeks for him to get back into game shape.
Hallander’s return to the ice comes more than three months after the 25-year-old was diagnosed with a blood clot in his leg. He was ruled out for at least three months at the time, so his pending return to game action in the minors roughly comes on schedule.
Hallander participated in NHL practice yesterday after the Penguins were eligible to reconvene, so it stands to reason his time in the AHL should be more game-focused than practice-focused since he’s already got one under his belt. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has three games on the schedule before Pittsburgh makes its post-Olympic debut on Feb. 26. One of them is against Springfield tonight, meaning Hallander is more likely to suit up at least once during their back-to-back against Bridgeport this weekend.
A second-round pick back in 2018, Hallander is already in his third stint in the Pittsburgh organization. He was traded to the Maple Leafs in 2020 for Kasperi Kapanen, only to be re-acquired the following summer in the Jared McCann deal. He then opted to return to Timrå IK in his native Sweden following the 2022-23 campaign, but the Pens retained his signing rights with a qualifying offer. After Hallander was named the SHL’s Forward of the Year in 2024-25, he activated the NHL out-clause in his deal with Timrå and returned to Pittsburgh on a two-year, league-minimum contract.
Hallander made Pittsburgh’s opening night roster and, after being a healthy scratch on opening night, got into 13 straight games before the blood clot took him out of the lineup. He recorded the first four points of his NHL career – a goal and three assists – with a +4 rating while averaging 13:09 of ice time per game. He slotted in at left wing up and down the lineup, as high as first-line duties with Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust and as low as fourth-line reps with Blake Lizotte and Connor Dewar.
The rookie had decent even-strength possession impacts and averaged about a minute per game on the penalty kill, but with Pittsburgh’s forward group fully healthy coming out of the break, it’s hard to see where he fits into the lineup. Egor Chinakhov was acquired from the Blue Jackets while Hallander was out and, with 12 points in 18 games, has solidified his spot alongside countryman Evgeni Malkin on the second line. Veteran Noel Acciari slots in with Lizotte and Dewar, and that trio has some of the best defensive metrics in the league. In all likelihood, he’ll serve as a versatile plug-and-play extra for the stretch run while allowing prospects like Avery Hayes and Rutger McGroarty more seasoning in the AHL.
Golden Knights Sign Alex Weiermair To Entry-Level Contract
The Vegas Golden Knights have signed 19-year-old forward Alex Weiermair to a three-year, entry-level contract. Weiermair currently leads the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks in scoring with 32 goals and 75 points in 57 games.
Weiermair moved to the WHL partway through the 2024-25 season after a slow start to his sophomore year at the University of Denver. He only notched eight points in 33 games with the Pioneers, continuing a trend for muted scoring that followed him through AAA and two years with the U.S. National Team Development Program. But now in the CHL, it seems the physical winger has finally found his stride. He reached 21 goals and 46 points in 41 games with Portland to close off 2025. That show of offense, mixed with Weiermair’s 6-foot-2 and 207-pound frame, was enough to convince Vegas to draft him in the sixth-round of last year’s draft.
One season later, the Golden Knights will vindicate Weiermair’s selection with his first pro contract. This deal will remove Weiermair’s eligibility to return to college, likely setting him up to move to the AHL after his CHL eligibility ends at the end of this season. In moving to the Henderson Silver Knights, Weiermair will join many other hard-hitting Vegas prospects, including Ben Hemmerling, Kai Uchacz, and Trevor Connelly.
Kings Fire Jim Hiller, Name D.J. Smith Interim Head Coach
The Los Angeles Kings will approach the trade season with a different bench manager. The Kings have relieved head coach Jim Hiller of his duties and named associate coach D.J. Smith as interim head coach per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The team has confirmed the change, adding that development coach Matt Greene has been promoted to assistant coach.
This news will end Hiller’s first tenure as an NHL head coach after two years. He was promoted to L.A.’s interim head coach role in relief of Todd McLellan on February 2, 2024. Hiller inherited a roster in the midst of a 3-8-6 skid. He quickly turned that around, setting a 7-4-0 record in his first 11 games that would grow into a 21-12-1 record by the end of the season. That earned Los Angeles a third-place finish in the Pacific Division and a tough matchup with the Edmonton Oilers. The Kings won one game – a 5-to-4 overtime win in Game 2 – but otherwise quickly fell to an Oilers team that pushed to a loss in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Hiller was named the head coach outright in May 2024. He kept the energy high in Los Angeles through the 2024-25 season, and quickly began to bring the beset out of hard-nosed players like Quinton Byfield, Alex Laferriere, and Adrian Kempe. The Kings finished the 2024-25 season with 105 points – their best finish since the 1974-75 season. But, like in 1975, L.A. fell to a first-round playoff exit, again at the hands of an Oilers club that’d go on to the Stanley Cup Finals. Hiller earned criticism for his decisions, and coach’s challenges, through the first-round series but held onto his role headed into the 2025-26 campaign.
But the Kings have struggled to generate the same level of offense this season. They rank 29th in the NHL in goals scored and have struggled to find the depth scoring to make up for a down year from captain Anze Kopitar. The Kings’ struggles to generate this season swelled with top winger Kevin Fiala and middle-six winger Andrei Kuzmenko suffering long-term injuries. Even with the superstar addition of Artemi Panarin, the Kings couldn’t keep their engine firing.
The deciding blow to their momentum came at the hands of, again, the Edmonton Oilers who beat the Kings 8-1 in their second game back from the Olympic break. Chants to “Fire Hiller” rained down throughout the game, and the head coach told reporters post-game that there’s always concern over job security in the coaching world per Zach Dooley on LA Kings Insider.
Even despite a 2-0 win over the Calgary Flames to follow the tough loss, Hiller has still been pointed towards the door. He leaves the Kings with an 8-8-5 record in 21 games since the start of 2026. Los Angeles sits three points outside of a Western Conference Wild Card, tied with the Nashville Predators.
Los Angeles will look towards Smith to turn their year around. He brings a little over four years of NHL head coaching experience, having led the Ottawa Senators from the start of the 2019-20 season to December 2023. He only managed one winning season in his years in Ottawa – notching a 39-35-8 record in the 2022-23 season but totaling a 131-154-32 record outright. The Senators couldn’t break into the postseason under Smith’s reign, with emerging youngsters Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk. Smith was hired to Los Angeles’ bench four days after Hiller’s promotion to the head coach role.
Both Hiller and Smith are proteges of veteran head coach Mike Babcock. Hiller joined Babcock’s staff for his final year with the Detroit Red Wings in 2014-15, overseeing the power-play, then followed him to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2015-16. Smith earned the first NHL coaching role of his career on that year’s Maple Leafs staff, after winning the OHL Championship with the Oshawa Generals in the year prior. Those deep roots and learned skills should keep Hiller in the conversation for an assistant coach role, in the same way that it has led Smith back into a head role.
Meanwhile, two-time Stanley Cup champion and 12-year veteran of the Kings blue-line, Matt Greene, will make his bench debut following this news. He has served a role in Los Angeles’ player development since he retired from his playing career following the 2016-17 season. Greene began with three years in a scouting role and has filled a development coach role over the last five years. He was a bruising, depth defender during his NHL career. Greene served as an alternate captain for eight years with the Kings, and at one World Championship with Team USA.
Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports.
Blues Activate Robert Thomas, Expected To Waive Robby Fabbri
3/1: As expected, Thomas has been activated from injured reserve ahead of Saturday’s game against New Jersey. He had been on injured reserve with an injury sustained in January and took a personal leave of absence following the Olympic break.
In a corresponding move, St. Louis has designated Robby Fabbri to the non-roster list, implying that he will likely be placed on waivers before Saturday’s game per AP News’ Stephen Whyno. Fabbri signed an in-season contract with St. Louis after beginning the year with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. He has four points, 12 penalty minutes, and a minus-three in 15 games with the Blues.
2/25: The St. Louis Blues will be without their leading scorer and top center as they return from the Olympic break. The team announced that Robert Thomas will be taking a personal leave of absence until Friday of this week. He will miss Thursday’s game against the Seattle Kraken but should be back with the team beforf Saturday’s game against the New Jersey Devils.
Thomas’ role in the Blues lineup can’t be understated. He has been a pillar of the Blues offense, averaging the most ice time (19 minutes) and scoring the most points (33) among St. Louis forwards through 42 games this season. Thomas entered this season on the heels of two career-years, marked by 60 assists in both seasons, to go with 86 points and 81 points respectively. He has been St. Louis’ main playmaker since the departure of Ryan O’Reilly and leaves a major hole to be filled for next game.
Thomas sat out of four games in late October and missed an additional 11 games after sustaining a lower-body injury on January 10th. St. Louis leaned heavily on Pavel Buchnevich in response, placing the veteran Russian winger into Thomas’ role atop the powerplay and penalty-killing units. Buchnevich also moved into the team’s top-center role, though he has struggled on faceoffs, with a 39.8 faceoff percentage this season. The Blues could look to Slovakian Olympian Dalibor Dvorsky to take center duties off of Buchnevich’s hands in the short-term, or could task Brayden Schenn and Jimmy Snuggerud with platooning in the role form their spots on the second-line. No approach will be perfect as St. Louis looks to replace their star in an important, Western Conference matchup.
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.
Morning Notes: Vladar, Garland, Klapka
While they have not been able to hold down a playoff spot, the Philadelphia Flyers have been a largely competitive team this season, and a significant reason for that has been the excellent play provided by netminder Daniel Vladar. The team signed Vladar, a longtime backup, this summer to compete with Samuel Ersson for the No. 1 role on the team, and he’s run away with it. In 35 games, Vladar has a .907 save percentage and 2.42 goals-against-average. Vladar has one more year remaining on his deal at a $3.35MM cap hit, and The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz asked Vladar about the prospect of signing an early extension with the team. Vladar made it clear that it was too early for those questions, saying “It’s too far ahead. I’m living my life day by day, week by week.”
Given Vladar’s success this season, it’s likely the Flyers have interest in locking him into an extension before his current deal expires. He won’t turn 29 until August, meaning he isn’t just a short-term stopgap option for Philadelphia. The team has some talented goalie prospects in its system, such as Carson Bjarnason, Yegor Zavragin, and Aleksei Kolosov, but keeping Vladar is the kind of move that can help the development of those players, rather than hinder it, because of how his presence helps keep those young goalies from playing too much, too early in their NHL career. The key factor related to Vladar’s situation is likely to be cost. Kurz pointed to the recent extension signed by Minnesota Wild starter Filip Gustavsson as a comparable deal (five years, $6.8MM AAV), but it should be noted that Gustavsson had more extensive experience as a No. 1 goalie when he signed that deal.
Other notes from around the NHL:
- As the Vancouver Canucks chart their course through an uncertain competitive future, one veteran name drawing interest ahead of the trade deadline is that of winger Conor Garland. According to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen, Senators head coach Travis Green is a “huge backer” of Garland, dating back to his own days as head coach of the Canucks, and as a result “it would be no surprise if the Senators checked in on” Garland. The 29-year-old has seven goals and 26 points in 49 games this season, and would instantly plug in somewhere in Ottawa’s top-nine. The main area of contention regarding a Garland trade is likely to be his contract, as his six-year, $6MM AAV contract kicks in next year. That contract has a full no-move clause attached.
- With the Calgary Flames sitting near the bottom of league standings, the focus for the rest of the season is undoubtedly on maximizing the growth and development of the team’s younger players, something that will be especially true after the trade deadline. One player poised to get an increased opportunity on the ice is 25-year-old winger Adam Klapka, according to Sportsnet’s Eric Francis. Klapka is already a success story for the Flames’ player development team, as the massive 6’8″ has blossomed into an NHLer since signing as an undrafted player out of the Czech Extraliga. But the Flames, including head coach Ryan Huska, appear to believe there is room for Klapka to provide even more value on the ice. Under contract for an additional season at a $1.25MM cap hit, Klapka will be one of the players to watch in Calgary moving forward, as he’s poised to gain a greater role once the Flames make their trade deadline moves. Through 57 games this season, he has notched five goals, 12 points, and 215 hits.