#3: Mikael Granlund
Remaining Contract: 2 Years, $5M AAV
This current contract that Mikael Granlund is one looked like the bargain of the decade the way it began. Granlund was piling up the assists, and a new formation of combined with Filip Forsberg and Matt Duchene was paying dividends for the Nashville Predators.
It has been fruitless to put it mildly this season, and Granlund has struggled to find his place on a Predators team that makes generating scoring chances as painful as pulling teeth.
Granlund is my top player I’d like to see the Predators trade, but I’m not convinced that there will be a lot of suitors. Maybe a few, but will the Predators like the offers? Probably not considering Granlund’s offensive game has fallen off a cliff to the tune of averaging his lowest total of shots on goal per game at 1.27, good for just six goals in 49 games.
Now, you can you argue that there’s a team out there that believes Granlund just needs a change of scenery and he’ll bounce back. That’s a fair assessment and I hope that’s the case so the Predators can move on from Granlund and clear up more roster space.
Granlund isn’t cracking the top-six of the lineup on any Stanley Cup contending roster, so you’ll likely have to take a modest return if you move on from him.