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The Nashville Predators did the unthinkable at the start of free agency by signing longtime Tampa Bay Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. Appearing on a live show, Predators general manager Barry Trotz revealed the reason for chasing such a huge transaction.
“I want to bring the Stanley Cup to Nashville,” Trotz said bluntly. “That’s something that I always wanted to do as a coach, and I wasn’t able to do it, so I’ve got a responsibility to arm my coach with as many tools as possible to bring a cup to Nashville, and hopefully we can do that sometime in the future.”
Trotz joined the hosts of TSN’s OverDrive on July 11 and on top of that, he said that he still expects another wave of free-agent players signing with NHL franchises throughout the rest of the offseason.
“I don’t think there’s a lot (free-agent talent left),” Trotz acknowledged. “I think, if you look at most teams, I think most teams are just buttoning up the last player or two in their lineup, and then obviously, there’s some arbitration cases. Not very many. I think we have one, but I think pretty well you get your business done before the trading deadline or not trading deadline before free agency. You sort of figure out what you want to add.
See if you can add it and then a few days after, maybe a week after and then things settle down for a couple of weeks and then you’ll see you get a second wave. I would say like almost at the end of July, early August of people who haven’t found a seat, yet still looking and you’ll get some bargain shopping.”
Nashville Makes Huge Free Agency Splash
It’s hard to find a bigger free-agency winner than the Predators considering what the franchise did on July 1.
Nashville and GM Barry Trotz entered the offseason with hopes of adding a few players to get over the postseason hump in 2025 and that, at least on paper, is exactly what they accomplished in a span of mere hours.
The Predators opened free agency with the biggest signings of all, extracting Lightning captain Steven Stamkos from the only place he’s now in Tampa Bay. The Preds signed Stamkos to a deal worth $32 million over four seasons.
Following that, Nashville also signed free-agent forward Jonathan Marchessault (five-year, $27.5 million contract) to join Stamkos in the lineup in their 2024-25 attempt to win the Cup.
The two got on a phone call before joining forces in Nashville, as Stamkos explained following his contract signing with the Predators.
“This is obviously a very special moment for my family and I, and we couldn’t be more excited to be joining the Nashville Predators organization,” Stamkos said via Zoom on July 1. “There were some rumors flying around that Nashville had signed Jonathan Marchessault, too, and at first I wasn’t sure if it was true.
“He called me and was like, ‘Are you signing in Nashville?’ I thought he was calling because maybe he thought I’d signed here and he wanted to sign here, and then it wasn’t going to work for him, or vice versa. And he said, ‘No Stammer, I’m coming too.’ So, that was a pretty fun surprise today.”
On top of that, the Predators signed top-line defenseman Brady Skjei, who inked a seven-year, $49 million deal with Nashville.
Predators Pending Business Involve Goalie Rotation
Although the news flew a bit under the radar because it didn’t involve a player from outside Nashville, the Predators also signed goaltender Juuse Saros to a huge eight-year, $61.92 million extension, per NHL.com.
With Saros, 29, locked under contract for eight more years, the Predators will field trade calls for their backup netminder, Yaroslav Askarov, as confirmed by GM Trotz on June 29.
“People are phoning on (Askarov). With us getting close to getting Saros done, obviously the rumors start and you guys have something to write about,” Trotz said with a smile on Saturday. “But goaltending, you can’t have too much of.
“It’s always that slow burn with goalies, where you continue to refine your game and continue to grow your confidence as a goaltender.
“I have to listen to calls, and if there’s something that makes sense for us, then we’ll do it,” Trotz said. “But there’s no timeframe, no urgency on my part.”
According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, the Predators tried to trade Saros’ backup Askarov before the draft knowing they had secured the veteran netminder to a a long-term deal before making the official announcement of the extension.
Askarov is under contract through the 2024-25 season with a cap hit of $925,000 entering the final year of his entry-level deal.
The Russian goalie, 22, played two games in the 2023-24 season posting a 1-0-0 record and saving .943 of the shots he saw allowing 1.47 goals on average. He had played one game (starting in net) a year before when he lost to the Montreal Canadiens in January 2023.