When Mattias Ekholm’s name hit the rumor mill earlier this month, eyebrows around the league raised a little bit. The top-four defenseman would be an asset for basically any contender in the league and teams were hoping he would hit the market at some point this season. Well, it sounds like it’s not just Ekholm that’s available in Nashville.
From Elliotte Friedman on Hockey Night In Canada’s Headlines segment this evening (via Adam Vingan of The Athletic on Twitter):
Word is maybe only three untouchables — Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Pekka Rinne, who’s towards the end of his career. I think other than that, the Predators are willing to listen on just about anybody. That includes Filip Forsberg. That also includes, I found really interesting, Dante Fabbro.
Fabbro, who is still just 22, is on the final year of his entry-level contract and will be a restricted free agent in the summer. The young defenseman was the 17th overall pick in 2016 and played in 64 games last season for the Predators, scoring 11 points and averaging just over 19 minutes a night. It’s hard to imagine the team would be giving up on him already, but perhaps they see him as a moveable piece if it leads to a fix elsewhere on the roster.
It had already been reported that Mikael Granlund and Erik Haula, who are each on one-year deals and pending unrestricted free agents, are likely to be moved if Nashville starts selling. But Forsberg too should draw plenty of interest if he’s actually available. The 26-year-old has one more year on his contract after this season and carries a manageable $6MM cap hit. Even in a tough year for the team he’s been the one offensive piece the Predators can rely on, scoring 14 points in his first 16 games (he is scoreless in tonight’s match as of this writing).
There’s also Viktor Arvidsson, who has been an offensive leader in the past, and the two expensive centers in Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen. For contenders looking to add, it’s not a short list of talent to pick from in Nashville, even if they haven’t put it all together recently.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
I can’t see the Predators trading Forsberg unless they get completely blown away in a trade
Forsburg and Ekholm for Eichel and Risto
That would be a crazy stupid deal for Buffalo to make. So, yeah. I suppose I could see it
Eichel is gonna wind up with the Rangers.
Rinne but not Saros?
Rinne only gets moved if he asks to be traded for one more run at a title. He is an institution in Nashville. Saros hasn’t played particularly well. The Preds showed that they didn’t think he was the goalie of the future when they drafted a goalie with the #11 pick in last year’s draft
I have never once understood why anyone ever thought Saros was a viable NHL starter.
If you look at his 2 seasons in Milwaukee there was no doubt about it he was an NHL caliber goalie, his rookie season he went 29-8-0 with a .920 sv% and a GAA of 2.24
Following season he was 13-2-0 with a .934 sv% and a 1.86 GAA… can’t say that they were wrong bringing him on as the next “guy” he showed great promise and still besides this year looked pretty solid maybe not as good as Pekka once was but he is a solid goalie
Too lazy to do it again, but I went through all of the recent AHL goalie of the year winners. Only 1/3 or so went on to NHL success.
Plus, he’s tiny. That’s not the modern game.
Grabbing Askarov was a huge move for them.
Freedmen had a segment on 31 thoughts this week saying how Nashville doesn’t want to protect 4 D in expansion draft. Also they will get the most bang for their buck on a quick retool by trading Ekholm due to his 3.7 cap hit next year as opposed to trading guys like Ellis, Josi or Fabbro who are controlled much longer/better players
Fabbro being available is definitely a head scratcher.
Mortgage the future for…uh…finishing in the bottom..interesting take Poile….
It’s weird how quick Elliot changed his tune from 2 days ago
I honestly think that if the Preds are going to go into rebuild mode, they need to make a GM change. Poile’s trades & signings haven’t been very good over the last few years. I wouldn’t trust him to make the right trades to help the organization rebuild
Bruins should do what ever they can to get Forsburg but sadly they have nothing to offer unless the preds want a soft 2nd liner in Jake.D and a injury prone sort defenseman in grizz
I’m sure people will be lined up the block to take on Matt Duchene’s bargain contract since he plays so hard and cares so much about his team winning.
He’s certainly proven his skeptics wrong.
Hasn’t he?
Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?
Are you suggesting that I would refer to him as a wretched dog with no heart and misplaced priorities?
How’s his country music career going, by the way?
It must be hard to focus on that when he’s at the rink night and day to improve his skills and better position himself to help his team win after getting that $8 million a year deal.
Can’t believe such a great and dedicated player is -10 on a struggling team only 17 games into the season.
Maybe he can write a song about how times are tough but he still has his dog, or something.
“Missed the playoffs again, only had 5 goals, but I still got my dog and millions of dollars….things aren’t too blue in Nashville…(steel guitar)…”