Will Nashville Predators buy or sell at NHL trade deadline? Barry Trotz is weighing both | Estes

For all that has changed from general manager David Poile to Barry Trotz, this part has not:

The NHL’s trade deadline is approaching, and all options are on the table for the Nashville Predators.

A check of the league’s standings shows the Predators where they’ve grown accustomed to being this time of year – neither seriously contending nor pretending, with a GM watching to see which appears more likely.

Had the NHL playoffs started Sunday morning, the Predators would have woken up with the final Western Conference wild-card spot, but just barely. Other teams' games could have changed that by about 4 o’clock.

It's kind of like how the Predators squeaked into the playoffs in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Not too different, either, from how they finished in 2022-23, somehow barely missing the playoffs despite a roster sell-off at the trade deadline.

A year later, it’s cloudy again. Entering the March 8 deadline, Trotz must figure out whether to buy, sell or sit pat in his full first season as GM. A case could be made for any of the three.

“The players are going to give us true direction where we should go,” Trotz said this past week, echoing predecessor Poile from recent years.

Despite the background and friendship between the two, Trotz hasn't been much like the now-retired Poile since taking over as GM. Trotz has been far more active. He boldly launched changes, big and small, all the way from firing coach John Hynes and retooling the roster (jettisoning the likes of Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene this past offseason) to clearing the walls of the Bridgestone Arena hallway outside the team’s locker room. It's a new era. You've been able to feel it.

And that's why I'd expect roster movement in the coming weeks. Because that’s Trotz. We've learned quickly that he's not going to be a GM to just sit still.

But what type of movement? Buy or sell?

“We'll get offered a lot of different things,” Trotz said. “There's other teams that are crunched in terms of salary cap. Maybe we can weaponize our cap room. Maybe we can weaponize some of our, let's say, players that are on expiring contracts – if we're not there (in contention).

"If we are in there, then maybe there's a switch of a piece here and there to help the group. All those are in play.”

This franchise is still building toward a future that hasn’t arrived yet. Doesn’t have a bad team right now, though. It’s certainly not as bad as these young Predators were supposed to be in their first season with coach Andrew Brunette.

The bottom line is the Predators are still in the same place they’ve been for years in the middle of the NHL’s pecking order. The difference this time is that it is considered overachieving for them to be there.

“It definitely felt a little different (in the past) because the expectations were different, I guess,” captain Roman Josi said. “… It's different also because we're young and guys are getting better and better. I think we'll be better as the season goes on as a team, too.”

That’s why adding players at the trade deadline isn’t off the table, either, if the Predators happen to get hot in the coming weeks.

“The group has shown all the indications that they are doing everything they can,” Trotz said. “I've got to do everything I can. We'll help them out (at the trade deadline) if we can.”

For the possibility of buying at the trade deadline to even come up is surprising, considering where this stood a year ago. The Predators, struggling at the time, finally embraced the long-hovering prospect of a rebuild by compiling draft picks with a fire sale before the trade deadline. The only surprising part of that was the 2022-23 team didn’t worsen on the ice, making a late run and nearly squeaking into a playoff spot when no one would have believed it possible.

The team is continuing to entertain offers to sell players, too, and Trotz should. That’s his job. If a top team in need of goaltending help offers the moon and stars for, let’s say, Juuse Saros – a possibility floated by NHL insider Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic – then the Predators must at least consider it.

Trotz reiterated last week, as he has before, that “I’ll listen,” but he’s not “looking to trade” the 28-year-old Saros.

“I'm looking to sign him,” Trotz said. “The market has changed a little bit, and there's like five teams that are looking for goalies, and all of a sudden, they are writing about Saros and the market. I haven't put him out there or anything, but if somebody comes and knocks your socks off, then you've got to listen at least. My intentions are still the same, but you never know in this business.”

GO DEEPFER: Are Predators open to trading Juuse Saros? Some thoughts

As of Sunday, the website moneypuck.com had the Predators with a 45.2% chance to make the playoffs this season.

That’s not high enough to feel comfortable. Not low enough to call it quits. Things develop quickly on the bubble. A few losses or victories could go a long way in the coming weeks.

Josi expects this deadline to “be a lot more quiet than it was last year” around the Predators.

“But you never know, right?” he added. “It’s the NHL. Always things happen.”

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Predators could be buyers or sellers at NHL trade deadline