Should Nashville Predators Trade for a Canucks Star?

After all of the big-ticket signings they made this past offseason, it’s no secret that the Nashville Predators are far from where they want to be in the standings.

An overall record of 11-20-7 gives the Predators 29 points in 38 games, leaving them a whopping 14 points out of the playoff picture in early January. Another Western Conference team with high expectations – the Vancouver Canucks – is also on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.

GMs Barry Trotz and Patrik Allvin have important decisions to make in the coming weeks and months. For Trotz, he’s saddled himself with multiple large, hardly tradeable contracts.

Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, both 34, are signed until 2028 and 2029, respectively. Ryan O’Reilly, 33, is signed for three more seasons, including this one. Another offseason addition, defenseman Brady Skjei, inked a seven-year, $49 million contract with the Predators on July 1 and will be 37 years old when the albatross deal is up.

Now, after a more than disappointing start to the 2024-25 season, Trotz must decide on the fly if he wants to double down with this group of players or begin tearing the walls down.

With three first-round picks in the 2025 NHL Draft – with more potentially on the way – Trotz is armed and ready to go, regardless of which direction he wants to go in.

Meanwhile, trouble is brewing in the Northwest. In Vancouver, Canucks stars Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes are both out due to injury. Former Predators forward Brad Richardson recently claimed on the “Missin Curfew” podcast that star Canucks forward J.T. Miller had been too hard on Pettersson, regardless of if Miller was right or wrong.

By extension, Richardson’s comments corroborate reports, as well as comments made by former Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau, that there is or was a rift of some kind between Pettersson and Miller.

Further to that point, one-time Stanley Cup champion and former NHLer Nick Kypreos had an interesting bit to share for the Toronto Star on Thursday. “It’s sounding like the Vancouver Canucks are leaning toward a major roster change as it becomes clearer to management that the current roster — specifically feuding stars J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson — cannot co-exist,” Kypreos wrote. “Don’t be surprised if we start hearing the Canucks are willing to take calls on Miller.”

While the talks around Pettersson and Miller are still merely rumors, this has been going on for a while. And when there’s smoke, there’s fire.

If made available by the Canucks via trade, Miller would almost certainly come at a lower cost than Pettersson, given that he is 31 years old. Miller is in the second year of the seven-year, $56 million contract he signed with the Canucks on Sept. 2, 2022, but has a full no-move clause. In other words, Miller has the final say in any and all transactions involving him until 2027.

It is also worth noting that, at an $8 million cap hit, the Predators should have no trouble fitting Miller’s salary on the books; they have $7.9 million in available cap space and would almost assuredly have to send a player back, especially considering the Canucks would want to remain competitive.

Pettersson, 26, is signed to a much larger eight-year, $92 million contract, on the other hand. Here’s the catch: this season is the only season where the star Swede does not have any kind of trade clauses or movement protections in his contract.

If the Canucks are trading Pettersson, they are doing it in the next few months.

Miller has played with Stamkos and Skjei before, dating back to his days with the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning. If Trotz needs some additional insight, he knows who to call.

As for Pettersson, he lines up most closely with what Trotz is looking for. It has been well-established that the Predators have been sniffing around Buffalo Sabres center Dylan Cozens, though the 23-year-old does not have the 100-point-season pedigree that Pettersson has.

For two underwhelming teams with big trade chips desperately looking to change their fortunes, a trade at least makes some sense. As is customary for a trade or exchange of any kind, the final fit largely depends on the cost, especially if assuming Trotz and the Predators prefer to keep their own first-round pick in 2025, via trade conditions or otherwise.

Expect the Predators to monitor the burgeoning situation in Vancouver closely.