How long will Nashville Predators wait before they start dealing players in trades?

Just one week into November and the Nashville Predators are already entering the trade rumor mill thanks to their abysmal and shockingly ugly start to their 2024-25 season.

After going gangbusters in the offseason by adding big named free agents like Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, the Predators sit in last place in the Western Conference and General Manager Barry Trotz has already introduced the term "rebuild", although it's unclear exactly what he means by that or his timetable.

The likely scenario is that Trotz moves on from depth players and looks for ways to open up the starting roster for up-and-coming prospects. Basically this would reintroduce the youth movement that was at the forefront of Nashville's current plans just two seasons ago.

Nashville Predators desperately need their puck luck to turn around fast

Even so, there are many analytics out there that suggest the Predators have also been the victims of some terrible puck luck on the offensive end and it's only a matter of time before the good fortune begins to happen.

Just look at the shooting percentages of some key Predators players. Roman Josi is at 1.7 percent, Luke Evangelista at 3.8 percent and Marchessault at 4.9 percent. These three are important players to Nashville's offense.

Then you look at Gustav Nyquist, who revitalized his NHL career in his first season with the Predators but now has just 15 shots on goal through 14 games. As a top line player, that is a really low number of shots.

To his credit, Nyquist has three goals on those 15 shots, but he needs to find ways to get more shots on net as a top line player.

The Predators are 11th in the NHL in Expected Goals For in all situations, but drop off to 14th when you look at them in 5-on-5 scenarios. This team has to show strong improvement in their 5-on-5 play if they're going to turn around their season. But again, many of the underlying analytics suggest that the Predators are doing a lot of the right things but the puck just isn't finding the back of the net.

Which Preds will be first to be traded if it comes to that?

I lay all of that out there to present the case of how much patience should Trotz show before he throws in the towel and begins trading key players. We know who the untouchables are at the top of the lineup, but a player like Colton Sissons jumps to mind as a player that could be traded to a contending team.

Sissons is signed for two more seasons, including the current one, and makes roughly $2.857 million. A decent amount of cap space could be cleared, and Sissons being traded would open up a spot for another prospect or more playing time for Philip Tomasino.

On the defensive side of things, you have to first think about Dante Fabbro. Quite frankly even if this rebuild process isn't enacted and the Predators turn things around, he should probably still be traded. He is making $2.5 million as a seventh defenseman who rarely starts and is averaging the least amount of ice time of his NHL career dating back to his first season.

Fabbro should either be playing more often over Luke Schenn, or they should be on the phones finding someone interested in acquiring Fabbro for their starting six defensemen.

So Sissons and Fabbro alone would clear up a decent amount of money and fall under the umbrella of a "rebuild process" without ripping it all apart. I will say that losing Sissons would hurt this team in the short-term as he is a vital two-way player that does so many little things effectively.

I just don't see a lot of quality trade candidates that teams are going to be super interested in. They could trade Nyquist, but I'm not so sure Trotz would like the offers. That might be a trade that will have to simmer as the season progresses and teams get more desperate closer to the trade deadline.

In terms of how long the Predators have left to reverse their fate and begin their gradual climb out of the Western Conference basement, I'm thinking by Thanksgiving if things aren't dramatically turned into a positive direction, then you start trading guys.

Nothing comes easy in the NHL, but the upcoming schedule for the Predators offers no reason to think they're the favorites in any of these matchups. They're at home against Utah Hockey Club on Saturday, which you can maybe call a toss-up if Nashville brings their "A" game. Then it's a four-game road trip against Colorado, Edmonton, Calgary and Seattle.

You have to think that we'll know a lot more about the direction of the team and if trade chips are about to fall after that road trip concludes. If Nashville can really for a stretch of winning four of these next five, or at least stacking some points from overtime then maybe the rebuild process is pushed off.

And let's be very clear; the Predators' margin for error has shrunk to almost zero. They have to play near perfect hockey in the coming weeks. They can't trade wins and losses, and they certainly can't afford to be taking anymore losing streak while not even making it to overtime for a point.