Nashville Predators Trade with the Sworn Enemy, Acquire Anthony Beauvillier

Just over a month ago the Nashville Predators were viewed as for sure sellers at the trade deadline and heading towards another year of missing the playoffs, but that has since changed and they traded for Anthony Beauvillier from the Chicago Blackhawks.

The trade, which sends a 5th-round pick in the 2024 draft to the Blackhawks, was first reported by Daily Faceoff.

Sure, this isn't some blockbuster buy by the Predators, but it does add depth scoring and a younger player with Beauvillier only being 26-years-old. He is due to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason.

Beauvillier has recently been in the starting lineup for the Blackhawks and logged 12:42 of ice time and four shots on goal on Tuesday. He's on a point drought of 10 consecutive games on arguably the NHL's worst team in the Blackhawks, so not really fair to criticize his point production too harshly.

Beauvillier has Moved Around the League a lot in just One Year

The Canucks traded Beauvillier to the Blackhawks earlier this season in late November, and was traded in January 2023 from the New York Islanders. So this will be Beauvillier's fourth NHL team in just over a year.

This raises more questions about the ripple effect of what the Predators want to do with their other forwards who are due to become unrestricted free agents this offseason. Yakov Trenin, Mark Jankowski, Kiefer Sherwood and Denis Gurianov are all pending unrestricted free agents in 2024.

Beauvillier has a career high 21 goals that he scored in 2017-18, his second season in the NHL. Over the last two seasons combined while being involved in trades to two different teams, he has amassed just 22 goals.

Where Beauvillier really stands out is his playoff production in back-to-back years with the New York Islanders. A 14-point campaign in 2020 and a 13-point campaign in 2021. During that stretch he notched four game-winning goals for the Islanders.

The intriguing aspect of Beauvillier is he can still have a high ceiling and just needs that classic change of scenery, which I'm sure General Manager Barry Trotz is banking on to help cap off this Predators playoff push.

Beauvillier can definitely provide an extra boost of offense for the Predators, who play a fast style under Head Coach Andrew Brunette, but have had consistency issues with their depth scoring.

Beauvillier has never been a big time power play producer in his career, and isn't primarily a two-way forward but more of just a pure offensive type of player looking for offensive zone time. He crashes the offensive zone hard in his forechecking looking to establish possession and get set up for scoring chances.

We'll have to wait and see how this ripple effect impacts what happens with the other Predators forwards on the trade block, with Trenin and Sherwood both coming off as players who could be directly affected by this trade acquisition.