Barry Trotz Calls Out Predators Players: 'I Need (Expletive) More From Them!'

We've all seen it: Sometimes, when a team just can't find the answers, and there are no trades that could solve its problems, the head coach takes the fall. Don't count on that happening to Andrew Brunette with the Nashville Predators.

Not only did GM Barry Trotz back his coaching staff, he called out his players with some colorful language.

Barry Trotz bemoaned some frustration on Nashville’s lack of scoring and overall lack of success this season 😳

Nashville ranks last in the NHL in goals per-game (via @AlexDaugherty1) pic.twitter.com/6cvUzx20U7
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) November 24, 2025

"I need (expletive) more from them," he said of his players. "I need more."

For the second straight season, the team is struggling mightily to score goals, despite the big splashes in free agency Trotz made in the summer of 2024, landing veterans Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault.

“The confusing thing, the frustrating thing for everyone, is that we just don’t score,” he told The Tennessean on Nov. 21. “You look at the names on our roster, we should score more. Because we have (Filip) Forsberg, Stamkos, Marchessault, we all think we’re going to score.”

The Preds are dead last in goals per game this season, with just 2.29. That's even worse than last year, when they finished 31st at 2.59 gpg. \

Barry Trotz says Predators coaches are 'coaching their butt off'

It was only a few days ago that Trotz threw his players under the bus indirectly by confirming he's a big fan of the coaching staff. “I believe our coaches have done a really good job. Our record may not show it, but they’re coaching their butt off.”

Now, he's holding nothing back from his thoughts on the way his players are underperforming. He says firing the coach just lets the players off the hook.

“Over the next few weeks, across the league, someone’s getting fired. You’re going to see it, it’s just going to happen,” Trotz said. “And what you’re going to hear out of every (expletive) player is, ‘Oh man, we just underperformed, he was a really good coach, we’ve just got to be better.’ And it takes everybody off the hook. They go, ‘Well, it was him, not us.’”

But Trotz says it is them, in this case. And he offered some on-ice tips for them, sounding like an embattled coach.

Barry Trotz offers solution for his troops to find new ways to score

“We’ve got to get greasier sometimes,” he said. “We’ve got to get into the interior a little more. As much as we try to reinvent the game, being skillful and off the rush, sometimes you’ve got to get a little greasier. The inside goals still count just as much.”

For now, the only 'grease' the Predators are showing, is on their slippery slope down to the very bottom of the NHL standings. They are 32nd and last with a 6-11-4 mark for just 16 points.

Many of his big-name players, in particular Stamkos, have been prime names on the rumor mill so far this season, and we don't expect that to change anytime soon.