There's not much out there to upgrade your roster this late in the offseason, but the Nashville Predators have a little money left over to spend and also a glaring need at the center position.
Mason McTavish is one of the biggest names out there in the trade rumors. He's a restricted free agent and someone the Anaheim Ducks could be willing to part ways with, but it will of course take a really good offer for the young center who finished last season off on a really strong note.
Never count out General Manager Barry Trotz to have another trick up his sleeve just when you think he's done making moves. If he wants the Predators to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs quickly after finishing 30th in the NHL standings last season, then he'll likely have to make an upgrade at the center position in some way.
McTavish has three really strong years in the NHL already after being drafted third-overall in the 2021 draft. He has three 40-plus point seasons since becoming an NHL regular and just put up 22 goals and 30 points this past season.
McTavish would be a perfect fit for what the Nashville Predators are trying to do, but haven't been able to
McTavish would be an awesome fit for the Predators and what they're trying to shift to in the long-term. They want to usher in a new era of hockey with younger talent and McTavish fits the bill perfectly at 22-years-old and figuring to only get better as a top-six center.
Imagine McTavish joining the Predators for 2025-26? I would instantly try him out as the 1C and put Ryan O'Reilly at 2C. You'd still have Fedor Svechkov working his way up in the bottom-six going into his second NHL season. Then you would still have Michael McCarron as your workhorse fourth line guy.
Looking further down the road, eventually you could end up with a big three center group of McTavish, Svechkov and Brady Martin. That's the youth movement we all have been waiting for.
The Predators, putting it mildly, don't have any trustworthy answers at center right now. They have an aging O'Reilly, who will likely have to be the 1C again this season, and then an unproven Fedor Svechkov next up. Maybe he seizes the role this year, but even so, adding someone like McTavish would really change the trajectory of this franchise.
Trading for McTavish would satisfy two needs at once; building for the long-term future with young talent while also actually making your team better in the short-term as well. Both sides of the coin can be happy with this.
You don't have to necessarily give up on the long-term future while also wanting to be better in 2025-26. But it's usually not easy to achieve that. Most of the time you have to add an aging veteran that doesn't have the long-term outlook in mind. This strategy has mostly burned the Predators in recent memory, but McTavish wouldn't fall into that with being so young and way ahead of his prime years.
The Nashville Predators don't have the trade assets to compete for McTavish
Unfortunately, we have to live in reality and the Predators actually landing McTavish is just too good to be true.
Now there are probably several suitors interested in McTavish, and who knows if the Predators can compete in their trade offerings with other possible destinations like the Detroit Red Wings and Carolina Hurricanes.
For the Predators to land McTavish in a trade with the Ducks they would have to offer a valuable draft compensation and also a legit NHL starter to help the Ducks win now as well. Scanning through Nashville's roster that lacks depth, this poses a big problem to land McTavish in a trade.
I have a hard time finding anyone on Nashville's roster that the Ducks would be interested in trading for to part ways with McTavish. Nashville's draft capital is their best asset, and they do have a couple 2nd-round picks in 2026 to dangle. Sending a 1st-round pick for McTavish would be bold and help get the ball rolling, but an NHL starter would still be needed for a team like the Ducks who, pun intended, aren't lame duck team heading into 2025-26.
I just don't see it, unfortunately. As much as I would love for the Predators to trade for McTavish, they just don't have the assets to outbid the other teams who are also going to be interested.
Brady Skjei has an eyesore of a contract and also has a no move clause. Roman Josi isn't going to get traded in any universe, and the rest of the Nashville defenders aren't valuable enough to bring you McTavish.
Even if somehow the Predators did trade for McTavish, you'd be tying up almost all of your remaining cap space to get him a new deal while also basically giving up on RFA Luke Evangelista. Evangelista also remains unsigned. You're really crunching the numbers to re-sign both of the RFAs in McTavish and Evangelista with only a projected $9.34 million in cap space.
The Ducks actually have a pretty exciting young forward core with players like Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson and Troy Terry. They also have some trustworthy veterans in Alex Killorn, Mikael Granlund and Ryan Strome. The Ducks have more of a need on their defense, and the Predators don't have much to offer there, either.
Could you get Jonathan Marchessault to waive his no movement clause? Maybe, but again I don't think the Ducks would be interested unless you throw in a 1st-round draft pick for 2026. It would take something like that for Nashville to get the attention of Anaheim. And the Ducks have more than enough cap space to take on Marchessault.
Marchessault and 1st-round pick for McTavish is really all I got, and I would actually be totally on board with that. Drafting is never a perfect science and I like my odds way more with McTavish than tanking again for a top-5 pick in 2026. Moving on from Marchessault would actually be beneficial to the Predators, and maybe the Ducks see a short-term gain to get the Vegas version of Marchessault and not the Nashville version.
Reports suggest that the Ducks want a top-four and right shot defenseman to be willing to move on from McTavish, and that is something the Predators just don't have. Full stop. And I wouldn't offer sheet McTavish with all of the cap space the Ducks have to match it.
So I'm with you on how great it would be if the Predators could trade for McTavish. Unfortunately, the Predators just don't have the assets for the Ducks to even pick up the phone and hear Trotz out. unless it's something really bold like getting Marchessault on board. Never hurts to fantasize, I suppose.