Currently sitting at 27-24-7 on the season, the Nashville Predators find themselves 2 points out of the final wildcard spot in the Western Conference. But with the NHL’s March 6th trade deadline quickly approaching, the team will need to make a decision in relatively short order as to whether they plan to be buyers or sellers next week.
Per PuckPedia, the team figures to have somewhere in the neighbourhood of $6.49M in cap space to work with. That figure would give them enough room to add another impact player either in their middle six or on the blue line should they opt to make a run down the homestretch.
However, if they want to get truly creative with their roster, moving off of Steven Stamkos’ $8M AAV contract could help free up some additional space, while fetching a decent return on the trade market as well. The veteran forward’s name has been linked to trade rumours over the last few months, which the team hasn’t exactly gone out of their way to shutdown of late.
The mitigating factor here is that the 36 year old holds a full no-movement clause as part of his deal. Yet, as Pierre LeBrun has reported, he is apparently willing to waive it for 3 teams: Tampa Bay, Minnesota, or Dallas.
Stamkos has a long and storied history with the Lightning, so a reunion there could have some legs. Minnesota is an intriguing option, but after already dealing for Quinn Hughes, does the club have enough in the war chest to go big game hunting yet again? Which leaves Dallas as a good option in theory, but the salary cap implications mean they’d need to be sending a significant amount of salary back to Nashville in any potential deal, which could be where things start to fall apart.
Of the 3 options listed, Minnesota ($2.69M in space) is the only option not currently already dealing with a cap crunch. But even they would need to free up roughly $6M in space to bring on Stamkos in a potential deal. Nevertheless, after dealing Marco Rossi as part of the aforementioned Hughes trade, the Wild seem to be a “centre shy” of seeming like a true contender.
At the end of the day it seems far more likely that a deal could come together over the summer. With current GM Barry Trotz having previously announced that he will step down at the end of the season, Nashville may opt to stand pat at the deadline this year and see if they can squeak in as a wildcard.
But with a strong prospect pool already in tow, headlined by 3 first round picks from the 2025 draft class, there may be a better market for a potential Stamkos deal when warmer weather comes around. At that time, Stamkos will have only 2 years remaining on his deal, and Dallas, Tampa, and Minnesota could have additional cap space to play with.
Photo: Stephen Yeargin. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.