Nashville Predators: Signing Dustin Byfuglien Would Be Too Risky

You have to weigh out the risk and the reward when signing free agents over the offseason. Many teams will be interested in Dustin Byfuglien, at their own risk.

The Nashville Predators find themselves in a peculiar situation when it comes to their defensemen. They have some outstanding and elite talent with Ryan Ellis and Roman Josi.

After those two, things get a little more dicey for the team. There’s Mattias Ekholm, which is an excellent second-pairing defenseman that is often overlooked, but he also regressed somewhat this past season.

Aside from those three, there’s not much stability with the Nashville defensemen. With Dustin Byfuglien suddenly being available on the open market, many teams are going to ask themselves if his “baggage” is worth the possible high reward you can get.

Should the Predators be interested?

The Predators definitely need to make some serious changes with their defensive core this offseason. It was their glaring weakness aside from Josi and Ellis.

More from Predlines

• Nashville Predators 2023 Training Camp Spotlight: Kiefer Sherwood
• Captain Candidates if Nashville Predators Didn’t Have Roman Josi
• The All-Time 25 Games or Less Nashville Predators Lineup
• Nashville Predators 2023 Training Camp Spotlight: Cody Glass
• Joakim Kemell Flashes his Offense in Nashville Predators Loss to Tampa

With Ellis being injured for an extended amount of time, the glaring weakness in this area became even more apparent.

A couple changes are obviously needed going into next season, but making a possible move for a player like Byfuglien is a tricky proposition.

Let’s leave the baggage aside. After all, Byfuglien is a proven star in this league. His career track record speak for itself as being a dynamic defenseman who has an outstanding all-around game.

But at age 35, Byfuglien is certainly on the back end of his very successful career.

Then you have to factor in the injury concern and where his mindset actually is at after not playing much in recent times. With all of his talent aside, it worries me where his desire level is at to play the game anymore.

Perhaps Byfuglien just needs a change of scenery and wants to get away from the situation he was in with Winnipeg. We can really only speculate on that.

With that hanging around, you have to ask yourself if making a move for Byfuglien is worth it for the Predators.

If he came in and played like the old Byfuglien that has over 500 career NHL points and put up 52 points just a couple seasons ago, then absolutely he’d be a great addition to the Predators on the second pairing with Ekholm. But it’s such a big “if” that can end up exploding in a real bad way.

Predators have to look elsewhere

This quote from Winnipeg Jets General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff via Yahoo Sports is really telling  on how risky it will be for a team to sign Byfuglien:

"“There’s only one person and one person only who can answer if he’ll ever play again, and that’s Dustin.”"

As enticing as it is to inquire in the possibility of adding a dynamic player like Byfuglien once was, and maybe still is, the unknown is just enough to keep me away.

There’s just too much that could go wrong if the Predators made a move to sign Byfuglien and it blows up with another bad contract.

The Predators already have some tough contracts to negotiate this offseason with key players like Craig Smith and Mikael Granlund. They also have to live with bad contracts with the likes of Kyle Turris, Austin Watson and Colton Sissons.

Another bad contract just can’t happen, and there’s a high probability that signing Byfuglien would blow up in their face. Other teams might be in situations where they can make a bold move like this , but the Predators aren’t in that boat.

The Predators have to keep developing Dante Fabbro into a worthy NHL defenseman, while addressing their second and third defensive pairings elsewhere in free agency and by looking over their talented prospect pool.

Byfuglien might find a landing spot elsewhere and have another solid season or two left in him. Or maybe his heart just isn’t in it anymore and he’ll go somewhere and not pan out.

I was intrigued earlier this season in the idea of possibly making a push for Byfuglien, but the more I’ve thought it over the more I’ve come to the conservative approach to the matter that the Predators should steer clear of this big-time free agent.

Someone will desperately reach for Byfuglien to solve their problems, but it shouldn’t be the Predators. They have other, more safe, avenues that they can take to fix their defensive issues.