The trade rumors for Juuse Saros aren't going anywhere because teams are always going to be desperate for better goaltending, and Saros is a UFA in 2025. Until the Predators sign him to a contract extension, the trade buzz speculation will keep churning around Juice.
I'm sure Trotz behind closed doors is already thinking about how he's going to work out a deal to keep Saros in Nashville for the foreseeable future. He knows it's going to take a big increase in pay, but you just can't let your franchie goalie walk for nothing.
So if Trotz isn't going to trade Saros in 2024, then the only other option is to re-sign him. And if that's the ultimate, it needs to get done at some point in the 2024 offseason. You definitely don't want to go into 2024-25 with this speculation still hanging over Saros.
There is an outside chance that Trotz is playing the long game into 2025 before he considers pulling the trigger on trading Saros before he actually hits free agency. That would really string this out longer than anyone probably wants.
Juuse Saros backstopped the @PredsNHL to victory with his 15th win of the season, trailing only Thatcher Demko (16) for the most among all goaltenders.#NHLStats: https://t.co/mWXQKIDH5k pic.twitter.com/CaBvAHHruh
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 22, 2023
Saros just recently moved into second place on the franchise list past Tomas Vokoun for wins with 162. He's at a very similar pace to Pekka Rinne's pace of wins. Rinne has 369.