Nashville Predators: Should They Sell High On Roman Josi?

Nashville Predators’ defensemen Josi has gotten better every year he’s been in the NHL, but has he finally plateaued? Is it all downhill from here?

Roman Josi is an incredible two-way defenseman. No two ways around it. But is his presence paramount to the Nashville Predators success? If he magically turned into a top six forward and a top four defenseman, would the Nashville Predators be worse?

No matter what anyone says, Josi’s stock will never be higher. He’s coming off of another nearly fifty point season and he’ll likely produce around that level for the next two years or so. Then he’ll start declining, most likely around the same time that the Predators window starts to close. Should the Predators try to extend the window by dealing Josi? Before we move into the pros and cons of trading Josi, let’s talk about what trades actually make sense for the win-now Predators.

The Predators have the luxury of being able to trade a true number one defenseman without  worrying about his replacement. But who has the pieces the Predators want?

Buffalo Sabres

Only a few teams immediately come to mind, the Boston Bruins, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Buffalo Sabres. The Nashville Predators obviously need offense while all the teams I’ve mentioned desperately need defense.

The Buffalo Sabres are in need of a player like Roman Josi, and they have offense to spare.

The Sabres boast an extremely pedestrian defense. I love Rasmus Ristolainen and Jake McCabe, but they’re too young to play on the top pairing. Josi would allow one of them to take reduced minutes in more favorable situations. While the other defender would get playing time with Josi. But what would the Predators get out of it? The most fair trade I can think of is Sam Reinhart plus a second round pick. Reinhart is a cerebral play maker who would compliment the scoring touch of Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson extremely well. He’d be a fixture on the 2nd line and first unit power play and possibly put up fifty plus points for years to come.

Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the premier up and coming organizations in the NHL. Auston Matthews is the center piece of an extremely deep and talented offense. But the defense is a bit weak. Morgan Rielly is a great defender but he is not a true number one defenseman. Roman Josi would bring an identity to a faceless defense that is looking to find what it is.

Is it a big strong defensive stalwart? Or is a smaller fast puck moving defense?

Roman Josi fixes that issue almost immediately. Many will say that James van Riemsdyk would be heading to the Predators but that alone isn’t enough. It’ll need to be van Riemsdyk and a prospect like Jeremy Bracco, that or Kasperi Kapanen and a pick. van Riemsdyk and Kapanen are players who could slot in anywhere on the Predators, although Kapanen is younger and a bit more valuable. I’d hope to see Kapanen come in and immediately play behind the JoFA line.

Boston Bruins

Finally, let’s discuss the most possible of the three, the Boston Bruins. The big one is David Pastrnak for Roman Josi. This would be a great trade for both teams. The Predators would get instantly better on offense while the Bruins would get instantly better on defense. Bruins management has come out and said that Pastrnak isn’t being traded under any circumstances.

But Predators fans have heard this before and made out like bandits the last time it happened (thank god for P.K. Subban). Josi would be a god send on that Bruins blue line as he would anchor their power play, penalty kill, and first line. David Pastrnak would allow the Predators to break up the JoFA line without worrying about decreased production from the new first line. He’d add a cool seventy points per season and would likely make just below what Johansen is making. He’s an all situations player who would thrive anywhere on that line-up.