The Predators head into this offseason looking at a treasure trove of available picks in the next two NHL Drafts.
Thanks in large part to Nashville’s fire sale leading up to the 2023 trade deadline, the Preds have nine picks in the first four rounds of the 2024 draft — one in the first round, three in the second, two in the third and three in the fourth. In 2025, the Preds have eight selections — including two in the first, one in the second and two in the third.
But Predators general manager Barry Trotz doesn’t sound like he’s content to use all those picks — patiently selecting young prospects who oftentimes won’t be NHL ready for three or four years.
Trotz instead sounds intrigued by the model the Vegas Golden Knights have followed successfully since becoming an expansion team in 2017.
Instead of the slow, patient build through the draft, the Golden Knights have made a dizzying amount of trades since coming into existence, willing to deal away prized draft picks as well as top young prospects in order to boost the present. In large part because of the many good assets they acquired in trades, the Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup Final in their first season, reached the Western Conference Final two seasons later and won the Stanley Cup in 2023.
“We may have to [build the Predators] a little non-traditional,” Trotz said Tuesday. “What’s traditional? The old way is it’s part of the draft. But the new way is acquiring and using your assets to get some of those players, like Vegas does. So we may be a little bit of a hybrid to doing that.”
The Golden Knights initially built a huge stack of draft picks via trades leading up to their expansion draft in 2017, and they have been successfully wheeling and dealing their assets ever since. Among the many players the Knights acquired in trades over the years were forwards Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Max Pacioretty, Reilly Smith, Ivan Barbashev and Chandler Stephenson; defensemen Shea Theodore and Alec Martinez; and starting goalie Adin Hill.
In fact, when Vegas won the Cup last season, it did so with a 24-player postseason roster that included 12 players acquired via trade — and just one selected in the entry draft. Others were acquired via the expansion draft, free agency or from waivers.
Trotz may not be quite so aggressive, but he certainly sounded as if he will give equal priority — at least — to acquiring players through trade as he will to selecting players in the draft.
“We’re going to put a big value on our drafting, and you’re going to have to put a big value on free agency or trades going forward,” Trotz said. “We have some of those assets. We’re [also] going to have that ability for free agency. Nashville is a destination team. Look at last year’s Stanley Cup champions. They didn’t really use much of the draft.
“So there’s different ways of doing it. But we have some draft capital that will allow us to be flexible and use those assets to acquire [players]. That’s what we’re going to have to do.”
In other words, don’t expect the Predators to use all the organization’s envious stash of draft picks to select young prospects.
Some of those picks will almost certainly turn into more NHL-ready players for Nashville’s roster.