Did the Nashville Predators win one of the NHL's worst modern trades?

The Nashville Predators have a cap crunch situation. With players like Philip Tomasino and Juuso Parssinen dangling around as unsigned RFA's, Cody Glass has been identified as a Predators player who might be on his way out to clear salary so that one or both of these players can be signed.

Glass has stumbled with injuries and inconsistency but, even if his Predators career ends now, he still provided the team with a positive result.

Back in July 2021, then Nashville GM David Poile swung a mid-summer three-way trade. With a looming roster freeze the Predators found willing partners with the Flyers and Golden Knights. What ensued can only be described as an evenly awful trade. There were no true winners of the deal.

Looking at it two years later it looks like the Nashville Predators will go down as the "winners" by virtue of having the only player left in the NHL.

Looking back at the trade for Cody Glass

Nashville and Philadelphia got the ball rolling as Nashville shipped off Ryan Ellis, getting two young players back in exchange for the then 30-year-old defender. Philippe Myers would stay with the Predators but Nolan Patrick wasn't getting comfortable. He was swinging over to the Vegas Golden Knights, with Cody Glass coming to the Predators. Both players qualified under the "needs a change of scenery umbrella" and all three teams were ready to move forward with their new players.

As it turns out, the 121 NHL games that Cody Glass has managed to play since the trade is more than the other three players combined. Ellis played the least, managing just four games before a torn psoas muscle ended his career. He had five points in those four games and seemed to be comfortably finding his stride, only for the injury to set it, and day to day turned into week to week, to maybe next year, to being retired.

Nolan Patrick sought new life in Vegas after things in Philadelphia flamed out due to stagnated improvement, some injury woes, most notably concussions, and a subsequent migraine disorder that kept him out of hockey for 650 days. Once he came back he was far from the player he had been, which already was not what the expectations for his career had been. He played sparingly. In 25 games he only amassed 7 points (2 goals 5 assists) and his career is seemingly over.

Philippe Myers came to Nashville and had a very forgettable 27-game stint. He ended up in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies on loan, unable to recall the promise that comes with being a well-touted 6'6" 220-pound defender.

Originally signed as an undrafted free agent, Myers decided to turn pro ASAP rather than wait for the next draft cycle. After flashing well for the Flyers in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, he was unable to translate his offensive game to the NHL, and his defensive lapses become more and more prominent.

The Predators could not fix him and threw him in with the deal that brought Ryan McDonagh over from the Tampa Bay Lightning. He failed to make a statement big enough to stick and played most of the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons with the Syracuse Crunch. As a free agent this offseason he signed on with Toronto on an AHL deal that will see him spending his time with the Marlies.

To his credit, Glass has scored more and played more than all of these players previously listed. His 121 games with the Predators have yielded 20 goals and 29 assists for 49 points, and has shown the desire to work through his troubles. He's well-liked in the room there could still be a place on the roster for Glass, but he needs a great camp and a hot start more than most of the roster.

Even if he doesn't make it, Glass' Predators career has been the best of the three-way trade that proved to be entirely futile for the Flyers and the Golden Knights,