With Steven Stamkos finally heating up for Nashville Predators, should they still trade him?

Usually you want your trade chips to play at a high level in the months leading up to the trade deadline, but I'm not sure it's quite that simple for Nashville Predators General Manager Barry Trotz and Steven Stamkos.

Stamkos just turned back the clock to his Tampa Bay Lightning glory days by piling up four goals in a 7-2 win for the Predators on Thursday. The Predators have suddnely won six of eight, and while they're still just three points ahead of the last place Vancouver Canucks, they're also within shouting distance of a wildcard spot.

We're also keeping an eye on the all-time NHL goal scoring list, with Stamkos now at 594.. His next player to pass is seven goals ahead at 601, and that player is Jari Kurri for 21st on the all-time goals list.

Per Hockey Stat Cards, Stamkos has the best individual game performance of the NHL season so far after this game of four goals. It gets his season total up to 12 goals, with another three assists. Still a lot of making up to do to get to the level of production that is required to keep the trade interest high.

Barry Trotz is going to have a difficult dilemma deciding whether or not to trade Steven Stamkos

What is Trotz to do with Stamkos if this level of play continues and the phone starts ringing a lot more from teams wanting the future lock for the Hall of Fame? Even when Stamkos was in his funk just a month ago, I figured there would be at least one or two teams interested in adding Stamkos to their playoff push. But only if they don't have to take on 100 percent of the $8 million cap hit.

This wouldn't even be a question if the team was continuing to lose but Stamkos keeps playing well. That would be a much easier choice to make.

Will Trotz really trade Stamkos while he's playing his best hockey since joining the Predators in the 2024 offseason? Landing Stamkos was Trotz's crown jewel and was supposed to put the Predators all in for not only returning to the postseason, but actually going deep.

Even with the improvement from the team and from Stamkos over the past couple of weeks, if we're not being prisoner's of the moment here then we realize this is still not a playoff team more than likely. But is Trotz convinced of that notion? No one really knows truly, and my thought is he wants to let this play out even longer and see just how long the Predators can keep up this hot stretch.

The Predators did make their first trade of the regular season by dealing Spencer Stastney on Friday to the Edmonton Oilers for a third-round draft pick in 2027. This is just a wise hockey trade by flipping a former fifth-round pick for a third-round pick while having an overabunance of capable NHL defensemen. Trotz had to clear some space, and getting a third-round pick to do that just makes logical sense.

Trading Stastney doesn't signal to me that Trotz is getting ready to make even more trades and stick to the doom and gloom of a firesale. He is going to be maticulous in this now that the team is showing a pulse. I can't see Trotz just cratering that momentum by deailng someone like Stamkos.

Furthermore, the belief is that for the Predators to even move on from Stamkos in the first place, they'll have to retain salary, on top of Stamkos having trade protection. This just further lowers the odds that Trotz is going to go through with this. I said that even before the winning started happening for the Predators.

Bottom line, if you have to retain salary to trade Stamkos, then I've always been consistent that you should just keep him. He brings just too much to the younger core of talent to just send him somewhere else while also having to eat part of the salary.

The only way this would make sense is if Stamkos was disgruntled, unhappy and causing more of a distraction. And quite frankly, we know that is not the case at all. By all accounts Stamkos loves being in Nashville and wants to see this through and make things right.

A Steven Stamkos trade by the Nashville Predators still feels unlikely

Robby Stanley, morning radio host for 102.5 The Game in Nashville, shared a really awesome quote from Stamkos after the four-goal game against the Blues:

""At this stage of my career, you just fall back on the preparation that you do. Yeah, would it be nice to feel like you’re 25 every night again? Of course. But you have to put in a little different type of work, and you’ve got to be the same person whether you’re scoring or you’re not scoring. That’s what I try to be. It’s nice when you get rewarded for those efforts that you put in behind the scenes.”"

per Robby Stanley

From the day the Predators landed Stamkos in free agency back in the summer of 2024, one of my first thoughts (other than how cool it was going to be see one of the best goal scorers of this generation throw on the Predators sweater) was how great of a mentor he's going to be for the youth that is coming up.

We're seeing this now with rookie forward Matthew Wood, as well as Fedor Svechkov. Stamkos' presence is also probably having a positive impact on Luke Evangelista's major growth he is showing this season.

This line combination with Wood and Svechkov produced four goals together against the Blues, and the best part is when you see Stamkos on the bench coaching and giving advice to these young players.

Now does this mean I think Stamkos is for sure not going to be traded at some point this season? Not necessarily. I maybe put the odds around 10 to 20 percent that he still gets traded, mainly because if the Predators do hit another long slump of losing then Trotz may be pushed to get everything he can out of his veteran assets, including Stamkos.

If the team comes back down to Earth and falls further out of playoff contention, the decision will be much easier for Trotz to consider trading Stamkos. That's especially true if a team is willing to overpay, or even take on 100 percent of Stamkos' remaining salary.

Again, that is very far-fetched and would require Stamkos to keep up this high level of play for not just a halful of games, but for the next month or two leading up to the first week of March's trade deadline.

Regardless, it goes without saying that the Predators desperately need Stamkos to keep up this level of high play and turn back the clocks. The more he does that, not only should the Predators keep finding ways to win and make things interesting, but it's be infectious to the younger players.