Predators' RFA Appears To Be Most Likely Trade Candidate

The Nashville Predators had themselves a very poor season in 2024-25 that forced their hand into some changes. While there is some hope that they can rebound to a certain extent, shadows of last season will still be looming over them. A number of players have to have bounce-back seasons and expectations have to be lowered.

There may be more room to shake things up further as Luke Fox said that, "the only one I wonder about is Luke Evangelista" when discussing the unsigned RFAs around the league. "Right now the sides are apart. They can't agree on term. The Predators...might still be a little bit more into shaking things up."

Besides Nicolas Hague, it is just the veterans on the team who are signed for multiple years. That is the look of a team that is going for it now, but failed miserably last season. The team has drafted pretty well and has some young talent coming, but someone like Evangelista should be seen as part of that, unless he can fetch the Predators an NHL-ready center prospect with a top-6 ceiling.

The Predators have cap space and Evangelista will be in a top-6 role, so I don't see many logical reasons why he would be on the move. Nashville might be playing hardball when they shouldn't as this is a team that may very well fall into a rebuild in a few years without success and after trying desperately to hang on.

Evangelista is 23 years old and scored 10 goals and 32 points in 68 games last season. It was a bit of a drop-off from his season prior, but the team was also a lot worse and his role didn't increase with the additions of Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault.

If the sides can't agree on a contract and Evangelista is just sitting there not having a use for the team, then I understand a potential trade, but he will help in the short-term and long-term based on his age and potential. The Predators have prospects and young players like Fedor Svechkov, Zachary L'Heureux, Joakim Kemell, Matthew Wood, David Edstrom, Ozzy Weisblatt, Reid Schaefer, Brady Martin, Yegor Surin, and Ryker Lee, so the organization should feel pretty good about the group down the line. If the team continues to try to hold onto something and keeps failing, that's when they will start to lose some of those prospects.