Nashville Predators: Possible Prospects to Play for Chicago Wolves

With their being no season for the Nashville Predators AHL affiliate Milwaukee Admirals, some prospects are being loaned to the AHL Chicago Wolves to get crucial playing time.

This just doesn’t usually happen in sports. To see a rival organization take in players to represent them on a loaner status. It’s truly crazy times for the NHL as they try to navigate through this complicated season, and that includes the numerous minor league levels below them.

The Predators are lending some of their prospects to play for the Wolves, a team affiliated with the Carolina Hurricanes. Coincidently a team the Predators just faced earlier this week.

In all three teams have opted out of the AHL season, with 28 teams moving forward to start play by February 5. The Wolves open their season on the same day against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Nashville Predators partnering with Carolina Hurricanes

There will be a handful of Predators prospects that will be allowed to dress for Chicago’s games according to Predators GM David Poile, per Brooks Bratten:

With Connor Ingram on the Predators’s taxi squad, the next goaltender up is Kasimir Kaskisuo. He’s expected to get some meaningful starts for Chicago in the upcoming season.

Kaskisuo put up this funny tweet asking about Chicago restaurants recently:

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Alexandre Carrier has always been an important defenseman prospect for the Predators. He’s gotten a lot of experience in the AHL for the Admirals, and you have to think he’s the next man up to the taxi squad if injuries or the worse occur down the road.

Poile seems to have a lot of confidence in Carrier as a call-up in the near future as he told the Nashville Predators official website.

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After the most recent loss for the Predators to the tune of a 7-0 drubbing to the Dallas Stars, defense and special teams is once again a concern.

If the Predators head down this path again, then prospects will absolutely start getting called up.

Other prospects that I would expect to get extensive time on the Chicago Wolves this season would be Rem Pitlick, Jeremy Davies, Anthony Richard and Michael McCarron. These are all players in my opinion are on the cusp of making it up to the taxi squad at some point.

Pitlick is another player that I think would be close to getting on the taxi squad if not for all of the moves the Predators made over the offseason for veteran depth in their bottom-six. He should play a big role for the Chicago Wolves.

Of course our eyes are all on Philip Tomasino, who is finally on the taxi squad for the Predators. I think sooner, rather than later, we’ll see Tomasino get some NHL minutes. His talent is too large to leave him on the shelf for too long.

No official team roster has been listed on the Chicago Wolves team website yet.

It’ll be very interesting to track their progress this season in this odd time to be playing for another organization. I’m glad to see that something has been worked out to give these young players a chance to develop their game until things get back to normal.