The Nashville Predators have officially reached the point that nobody thought they would before the current season started - they are bonafide sellers at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline. They just made a trade that nowadays, everyone expected them to make, as they have dealt pending unrestricted free agent Gustav Nyquist to the Minnesota Wild.
The official details of the trade are Nyquist going to Minnesota for a 2026 second round pick, and the Predators are retaining 50% of Nyquist's salary. It is worth noting that the Predators burned their third of three salary retention spots in the trade, but since Nyquist's contract expires after this year, that element of the trade is essentially inconsequential.
🔄TRADE:
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) March 1, 2025
We've acquired Minnesota’s own second-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft from the Wild in exchange for forward Gustav Nyquist. In connection with this trade, we've agreed to retain 50 percent of Nyquist’s salary.
Full details » https://t.co/SgULUf7gnM pic.twitter.com/kMeWudEYIY
Nashville Predators early trade grade of Nyquist to Wild
In a vacuum, the 2026 second round pick that the Predators got in return for Nyquist is fine. He is what he is as a player - a solid middle six distributing winger who will rarely if ever be a big difference maker, but shores up team depth nicely, and can help teams looking to go deep in the playoffs.
A lot of people were surprised that the Predators got that much in return for Nyquist, as he has a mere nine goals and 12 assists on the season. Even with that, he is still a respected player in the league who has been around for a long time and been consistent, and has been coveted by other teams at previous trade deadlines.
Nyquist also is just one year removed from an unbelievable career season, when he came out of nowhere and put up 75 points. That is still fresh enough for other general managers to look at and think there is legitimately something they could get out of him, especially if he is on a better team, so it shouldn't be a major shock that he brought a top-100 pick in the trade.
Even though this trade itself makes perfect sense for the Predators right now, we cannot deny that they missed an opportunity to get more in return for Nyquist. As great as last year was for him, just about everyone knew he would not repeat it or even come close most likely, and a trade last offseason would have made sense because his value was never going to be higher.
Keeping him made a little more sense once we saw last offseason's plan come to fruition, but regardless, the Predators kept Nyquist in hopes that he could somewhat replicate last year's success, and of course that did not happen.
So in the present day, the team reached a point where they had no choice but to trade him before he becomes a free agent, and they lose him for nothing. Again, it is a solid return for what it is, but it is hard to not think of what could have been if the Predators knew what Nyquist's last season was, and maximized his value when they could have.
In any event, this move is a good start to what Barry Trotz and comapny need to be doing at this Trade Deadline. Even if they are not in a position to make any truly big and crazy moves, there are still more players who can be dealt, and you can expect to see more action in the next six days.