The Nashville Predators have continued to be one of the NHL’s busiest teams this season, making trades to revamp their goaltending and move out stalling veterans in favor of top prospects. It seems the latter trend could continue, with the team eyeing trades for forward Juuso Parssinen per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in the latest 32 Thoughts. Friedman compared the rumors to Nashville’s separating from Philip Tomasino and Dante Fabbro, who have each found far more success in their new homes. Tomasino has three goals and four points in seven games with Pittsburgh, while Fabbro has seven points in 15 games with Columbus.
Parssinen has just five points through 15 games this season – four of which came in a four-game span in mid-November. He’s recorded no scoring and a -6 in seven games since that hot streak, losing grip on his third-line role along the way. This year marks Parssinen’s first with a full-time role on the Predators roster, after splitting the last two seasons between the NHL and AHL. He scored an admirable 25 points in 45 games as a rookie – coupled by nine points in 10 AHL games – in 2022-23. But Parssinen took a step back at both levels last season, scoring just 12 points in 44 NHL games and 25 points in 36 AHL games. Making the Predators roster out of training camp was an encouraging sign heading into this year, but after 15 games, the former seventh-round pick may no longer be a fit. His six-foot-three frame and serviceable play at center should draw plenty of attention from around the league, though his 42 points in 104 career games likely won’t earn Nashville a hefty return.
Other notes from around the league:
- Calgary Flames winger Andrei Kuzmenko is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Walker Duehr is expected to fill his role in Saturday’s game against Florida. Kuzmenko has just one goal and 10 points in 28 games this season. He was healthy scratched for three games at the start of the month, and has since recorded one point and a -2 in three games. He’ll need a return to full health to come with more confident scoring if he wants to ward off emerging prospects Duehr and Jakob Pelletier.
- Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer provided a bit of clarity into Matt Dumba’s injury, telling Brian Rea of Bally Sports Southwest that he is somewhere between day-to-day and week-to-week. Dumba has missed Dallas’ last two games after suffering an upper-body injury in Sunday’s matchup against Calgary. He’s been oft-injured in his first year with the Stars, limited in or outright missing 10 of Dallas’ 28 games this season. That’s made adjusting to the new setting tough, evidenced by Dumba’s one assist in 19 games – a team-low in scoring among players with more than a few games played. Dumba faced nagging injuries between 2018 and 2021, but rediscovered his health in the last two seasons. Unfortunately, he hasn’t found the scoring of his early career in the return. Once a 50-point scorer, Dumba posted just 26 points in 155 games between 2022-23 and 2023-24. He played for three teams – Minnesota, Arizona, and Tampa Bay – in that span.
Somewhere between day to day, And week to week? Now they are just trying to sound smarter than they really are, It just sounds made up. It’s just not that sophisticated, My favorite line this season so far is, It’s a middle body injury, It’s always been, Upper, And lower, It’s now been expanded to middle body. So adorable.
How is Parssinen a stalling “veteran”? He’s 23 years old! And just like all these other guys like Tomasino, Fabbro and Tolvanen, they all seem to stall out in Nashville. In fact, the whole Preds roster has stalled out under Andrew Brunette. This shouldn’t be hard to figure out what the problem is here, but Trotz is to bull headed to admit he made a bad coaching hire.