Predators Acquire Dalton Bancroft, Massimo Rizzo From Bruins
The Bruins have acquired left-winger Navrin Mutter from the Predators in exchange for right-winger Dalton Bancroft and center Massimo Rizzo, both teams announced. As the deal was completed after last Friday’s trade deadline, all three players are ineligible to be recalled for the remainder of this season. However, they’ll report to their new AHL affiliates ahead of tomorrow’s trade/loan deadline in that league.
All three players are in the last year of their deals. While Bancroft and Rizzo will remain under Nashville’s control this summer as pending restricted free agents, Mutter is a pending Group VI unrestricted free agent and can reach the open market. He’s three days away from his 25th birthday and was an undrafted free agent signing by Nashville back in 2022 out of OHL Kitchener.
Since then, Mutter has spent the last four seasons playing almost exclusively for AHL Milwaukee, aside from a half-year demotion to ECHL Atlanta in 2023-24. The 6’3″, 203-lb winger essentially amounts to minor-league enforcer depth. He was never a big offensive producer in juniors, and that hasn’t changed in Milwaukee, where he has just four goals and 20 points in 149 career games but owns a whopping 299 penalty minutes.
Nashville takes a similarly-cast player back in the deal in the 25-year-old Bancroft. He’s a few pounds heavier than Mutter but has the same frame and play style. He’s in just his first professional season, though, signing with Boston out of Cornell University last season, also as a UDFA. He clicked at over a point per game for the Big Red as a junior but has just two goals and an assist in 39 games for Providence since debuting last spring, along with 30 penalty minutes.
The most dynamic threat in the swap is Rizzo, who Boston had just acquired from the Flyers on deadline day last week. The 24-year-old pivot only played once for Providence before being sent on the move again. A standout over three years at the University of Denver, Rizzo only managed 16 points in 48 games for Philly’s AHL affiliate last season and had spent the entirety of this year in the ECHL before the trade, where he had a 6-16–22 scoring line in 29 games. He’s the only player in this swap who likely has a sniff at an NHL future, and even that’s a stretch, but the Preds are nonetheless hoping he can rediscover his offensive confidence in Milwaukee over the final few weeks of the season before determining whether to give him a qualifying offer.
Predators Sign Navrin Mutter To One-Year Extension
The Nashville Predators have signed forward Navrin Mutter to a one-year, two-way, league-minimum contract for the 2025-26 season. Mutter was set to become a restricted free agent this summer, after completing his three-year, $2.3MM entry-level contract signed in 2022.
Mutter played four seasons in the OHL prior to signing his entry-level deal. His junior career started with the Hamilton Bulldogs in the 2017-18 season, where he quickly found a knack for gritty and antagonistic hockey. Mutter recorded 231 penalty minutes in 155 games through his first three OHL seasons, leading up to the cancelled 2020-21 campaign. He made his pro debut during the cancelled year – spending three games and recording no stats, other than a minor penalty, with the Stockton Heat. But Mutter opted to return to Hamilton for the 2021-22 campaign, and was traded to the Kitchener Rangers mid-season. Between the two squads he recorded a career-high of 22 points and 108 penalty minutes in just 62 games – good enough to convince Nashville to sign him as an undrafted free agent the following summer.
Mutter spent his entry-level contract finding his footing in the minor leagues. He played through his rookie AHL season in 2022-23 and immediately carried over his hard-hitting, dirty-area style of hockey. Mutter recorded eight points, 72 penalty minutes, and a minus-11 in 53 games as a rookie. That was enough to maintain his spot in the AHL for the start of the 2023-24 campaign, though Mutter was demoted to the ECHL in December after recording just two points in the first 12 games of the season. He went on to find a scoring streak in the third-tier league – netting five points in his first eight games. That mark rose to 11 points and 63 penalty minutes in 33 games before Mutter was recalled back to the AHL, where he finished the year with six points and 63 penalty minutes in 26 games.
With his legs under him, Mutter held onto the important role of depth enforcer for the Milwaukee Admirals this season. He only managed four points in 37 games, but did tally 87 penalty minutes – the second-highest PIMs-per-game on the team behind Kyle Marino‘s 150 PIMs in 63 games. This extension will return Mutter to his bruising role in the minors with likely little upside as an everyday NHLer. But should the Predators need a hard-hitting, tough-nosed fighter to boost their lineup – winger Mutter will carry the two-way flexibility to join the NHL camp.
Nashville Predators Sign Navrin Mutter
The Nashville Predators have dipped their toes into the undrafted free agent market, signing Navrin Mutter to a three-year entry-level contract. The deal starts in 2022-23 season and Mutter will continue to play with the Kitchener Rangers for the rest of this season.
Mutter, 20, has split this season between the Rangers and the Hamilton Bulldogs, where he previously served as an alternate captain. The 6’4″ forward has little offensive upside–he has 17 points in 44 games this season–but brings an impressive physical game, sometimes even going over the line. Mutter’s 88 penalty minutes this season is second in the entire OHL, after finishing second in 2019-20 with 107.
That brand of physical hockey has obviously interested the Predators, who have now signed the undrafted forward to an NHL deal. He’ll likely join the Milwaukee Admirals on an amateur tryout when the OHL season ends, but that actually won’t be his first taste of professional hockey. During the 2020-21 season when the OHL was shut down due to COVID restrictions, Mutter played three games with the Stockton Heat, recording two penalty minutes in the process.