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Nashville Predators heading towards a fire sale, but these players should be untouchable

We have reached a breaking point in the Nashville Predators season, and not even at the 20-game mark.
ByChad Minton|
Nov 10, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Nashville Predators right wing Matthew Wood (71) celebrates his goal against the New York Rangers with teammates during the first period at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Nov 10, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Nashville Predators right wing Matthew Wood (71) celebrates his goal against the New York Rangers with teammates during the first period at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | Brad Penner-Imagn Images
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Nashville Predators
Nov 8, 2025; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Nashville Predators players celebrate a first period goal against the Dallas Stars by Nashville Predators right wing Luke Evangelista (77) at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Alan Poizner-Imagn Images | Alan Poizner-Imagn Images

The Others

Everyone else I would say are trade worthy, with one caveat to Matthew Wood. The way he is trending as a rookie on a team that overall can't produce offense is very encouraging. It's a small sample size, that's the only caution I would give to fans.

If nothing else, you want Wood to be around for the long-term rebuild and eventually be elevated to the top-six once some of these other veterans are unloaded before the 2026 trade deadline. A lot of roster space is about to open up, and Wood is a guy who should see elevated minutes as a result of that sell off.

Trading Wood wouldn't make any sense if you're preparing for a rebuild, so he's basically an untouchable in my mind.

The veterans who are basically gone at this point are Michael Bunting, Erik Haula and maybe even Ryan O'Reilly. Some fans would have O'Reilly as an untouchable, but he's your best trade piece right now and the easiest contract to move. You keep him into the final year of his deal and you risk his trade value plummeting. So O'Reilly unfortunately has to be aggressively shopped on the trade market.

You should be doing everything you can to find trade partners for Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei. You're basically stuck with Skjei, but Stamkos and Marchessault still hold that unique talent that other GM's may think they can recapture.

To wrap this up, let's just say realistically speaking that O'Reilly, Bunting and Haula all get traded. That's two center spots that open up and a winger spot. Wood moves up, Joakim Kemell gets called up, you give another opportunity to Zachary L'Heureux and possibly we see David Edstrom get his first look at center on the NHL level.

PREDICTIONS: Traded-O'Reilly, Marchessault,Bunting, Haula, Blankenburg. Trade pieces that are retained- Saros, Smith, McCarron, Stamkos, Skjei. Waived- Jost. Elevated players-Wood, Kemell, Wiesblatt, L'Heureux, Edstrom

I don't see as many trades happening on defense, although Nick Blankenburg is due to be an UFA next offseason and he might get you something decent in the trade market.

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