Nashville Predators Willing To Trade A Couple Of Younger Players

It has all fallen apart for the Nashville Predators and it appears as though the team is finally going to dive into a rebuild. While nothing has specifically started, they are open for business and the trade rumors are starting to pick up, not just for the veterans we'd all think should and likely will be moved, but for some younger players too.

Elliotte Friedman said, "I think (Trotz) is calling around. I've heard he's called on maybe a young player or two. I stress this, not like the Joakim Kemells, not those kind of guys...more like Luke Evangelista or something like that."

The Predators have plenty of veterans that they can move, so calling around about younger players is a very interesting decision. What this compares to is the Chicago Blackhawks the year before they won the draft lottery and drafted Connor Bedard. They traded and released multiple younger players that could've been solid supporting pieces and then won the lottery and got a projected generational player that changed everything.

The Predators are bad with what they have and could very well finish with the best odds to draft Gavin McKenna, the next generational talent. This seems like it could be the same route. Maybe the team just doesn't see a long-term fit with Evangelista and his game because they have players like Matthew Wood, Fedor Svechkov, Kemell, Zachary L'Heureux, Reid Schaefer, and Brady Martin up front. If a 23-year-old Evangelista, who has been playing on the top line, isn't safe, I wouldn't say all of those names mentioned are safe either.

The Predators are in shambles and Barry Trotz has a ton of work to do to fix the situation he put the team in, thinking that they were good enough to be contenders with a few offseason additions. Nashville could be the first team to kick off the trade action this season after their start.