Will the Nashville Predators make a big trade this season?
NBC Sports: The Nashville Predators have a remarkable amount of salary cap to work with, considering that they’re the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners. Nashville has about $7.625M in cap space heading into 2018-19. They don’t have any outstanding RFAs to deal with, and the team-friendly Ryan Ellis deal gives them wonderful cost certainty.
GM David Poile is no stranger to blockbuster moves, so he could address the Predators desire to win the Stanley Cup in a big way via any number of trades. Nashville wouldn’t even need to move salary to fit the 2018-19 cap hits for Erik Karlsson, Max Pacioretty, Artemi Panarin, or Tyler Seguin.
They also have managed to bring along some promising prospects who could be used in a trade, if Poile can stomach such moves. Would landing a big name be worth parting ways with Dante Fabbro or even Eeli Tolvanen? Maybe, maybe not. There are ways where Poile could probably even manage a balancing act of extending a Karlsson or other game-breaker, particularly with Pekka Rinne’s $7M set to come off the books.
Winnipeg Jets and their Salary Cap issues
Winnipeg Free Press: The Winnipeg Jets are looking like the Chicago Blackhawks from a few years back. They now have a stacked team but the salary cap will not allow them to keep the team together next year. Paul Wiecek speculates the Jets will follow the mold of the Washington Capitals and build with the forwards and piece together defenceman that will fit under the Salary Cap.
The Jets once again this summer were unable to lock Jacob Trouba down to a long-term deal and Josh Morrissey still without a contract with barely a month until training camp, Wiecek wonders if the Jets will ultimately have that choice made for them and will likely have to trade the defenceman at the 2019 NHL trade deadline or keep the players and lose them to free agency in the summer.
