Not a move that is going to get a lot of people talking, but the Nashville Predators added some veteran depth to their forward group by claiming Tyson Jost off waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes, as reported by Elliotte Friedman on Wednesday.
Nashville claims Jost
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 1, 2025
Jost joins a Predators team that has a lot of young talent pushing late into training camp for a starting lineup role, so it might come as somewhat of surprise to see this addition. What it indicates is that the Predators don't want to go full-on into the season with such a young crop of forwards and felt the need to take a flyer on the 27-year-old Jost who is a former 10th-overall draft pick from way back in 2016.
This move swaps out up and coming prospect Reid Schaefer, at least for now. Schaefer has been assigned back to the Milwaukee Admirals, but it's likely we'll see him again called up at some point in the upcoming season.
It looks like the Predators want to take the conservative approach of not rushing too much youth and inexperience in all at once to open 2025-26. There is also the week-to-week injury status to Matthew Wood that might have played a role in this waiver claim, as well as the ongoing contract standoff with RFA Luke Evangelista. That's two possible starting forwards that currently are not available for the season opener.
Tyson Jost claimed by Nashville Predators, will join a group of forwards battling for a couple remaining starting lineup spots
As for Jost, there's no sugarcoating this. His analytics look rough at best, and more like a guy who will be a journeyman battling for fourth line minutes the rest of his NHL career. This is probably not going to be chalked up as a good move by Barry Trotz by most Predators fans who already have Trotz deep into the doghouse as it is.
Preds pick up Jost on waivers. pic.twitter.com/W4fHegOGNz
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) October 1, 2025
This could also just be a quick tryout for Jost and nothing more. If he comes in and provides a quick spark and is better than expected, then bonus. But the more likely scenario seems to be he's a placeholder and eventually gets waived himself.
The best quality that Jost brings to the Predators is more NHL experience. I can't really find anything else that makes sense to bring him on other than Trotz isn't comfortable with so much inexperience in the starting lineup right out of the gate.
Jost has never posted more than 26 points in a season in the NHL, and he's heading into his ninth full-time season in the big leagues. The Predators will be his fifth NHL team after spending his first six seasons with the club that drafted him, the Colorado Avalanche.
Jost will fit into the bottom-six somewhere and take a spot from a younger player like Zachary L'Heureux or Ozzy Wiesblatt. There's also the chance he's quickly waived again. There's really no risk here for the Predators, just simply taking a flyer out on a guy who will play some defense, throw out some hits and blocks and maybe provide some extra stability to open the regular season.
I'm really kind of neutral on this move because it's just a simple waiver claim to see if there's something left in the tank for Jost. Teams do this a lot right before the season starts to see if they find a bonus waiver claim that can make a difference. Rarely does it work out to anything significant.
Jost has 495 games of NHL experience with 61 goals, 88 assists with just a career average time on ice of 12:56. He has unfortunately never been able to come close to his top-10 draft pick status, but at only age 27, maybe he can find something long lasting with Nashville.