To Stay or To Go? Tracking These Nashville Predators 2024 Free Agents
By Chad Minton
Instead of being sellers at the 2024 trade deadline, the Nashville Predators forged ahead while in midst of a franchise best 18-game point streak. In the end, the Predators made the playoffs, but lost in the first round again.
There's no time for the Predators front office to reflect too much on last season, the highs and the lows, because there's a list of pending unrestricted free agents to decide on, and not to mention Juuse Saros who has just one season left on his contract and has the highest trade value this offseason.
General Manager Barry Trotz completed his first season leading an NHL front office with a lot to love. The veteran acquisitions he made definitely paid dividends to the team's regular season success, most notably Ryan O'Reilly and Gustav Nyquist who joined forces with Filip Forsberg on Nashville's top line.
Choosing Andrew Brunette as his first head coach also appears to be a smashing success. Brunette is one of the finalists for the Jack Adams Award, the NHL's coach of the year. And deservedly so.
Now the overwhelming question is, how does Trotz keep the momentum going forward while also avoiding the trap of signing any catastrophic long-term contracts that end up being death sentences like David Poile did a few times?
Time to look to my top-5 free agents for this offseason and where I think they'll end up for 2024-25. I'll save the multiple scenarios for Saros for another day because technically he isn't a 2024 free agent, even though it feels like he is.