1. Gustav Nyquist, Winger, UFA in 2025 Offseason
Proposed trade return: Prospect and late round pick
The no-brainer of the list and the only pending unrestricted free agent in the Nashville Predators current NHL lineup is Gustav Nyquist.
Nyquist has regressed badly after his first year with Nashville, which saw the 35-year-old explode for a career high 75 points. He's at 20 points in 51 games currently. That's a Points Per 60 drop of 3.1 to 1.3 points. A drop off the cliff.
Due to this enormous regression, Nyquist isn't going to fetch you what you could've gotten out of him last season. It's hard to blame Trotz for not trading Nyquist last season in his first year while the Predators were riding an 18-game point streak and charging towards the postseason. That's just playing Monday Morning quarterback.
Nyquist comes in at No.13 on Daily Faceoff's latest trade board from Frank Seravalli. He's the highest ranked Predators player on the trade board with no other Predators players appearing in the top-30.
Despite the drop-off in offensive numbers, Nyquist has playoff experience and has the ability to be a perfect rental for someone. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Nyquist lands on a playoff team and puts up respectable numbers in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He's probably already begging Trotz for a trade to get out of dodge.
I'll be happy with whatever Trotz gets for Nyquist because he'll cetainly be lost for nothing in offseason free agency. The optimistic hope would be to get a decent prospect to reload Milwaukee.
Honorable Mention (no value or just not tradeable): Michael McCarron, Jeremy Lauzon, Brady Skjei
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