{"id":841301,"date":"2026-08-01T23:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T23:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/841301\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T23:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T23:26:08","slug":"predators-notes-bourque-defense-josi-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/841301\/","title":{"rendered":"Predators Notes: Bourque, Defense, Josi \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Mavrik Bourque<\/a> has spent the bulk of his NHL playing time on the wing in Dallas, he is a natural center.\u00a0 Now that he\u2019s with the Predators, he\u2019s going to get a chance to play down the middle with his new team.\u00a0 Speaking with NHL.com\u2019s Nick Cotsonika<\/a>, new GM Chris MacFarland indicated that Bourque will get \u201cevery opportunity to excel in the middle of the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The center position has been one that Nashville has been trying to fill for quite some time now.\u00a0 Veteran Ryan O\u2019Reilly<\/a> has been thrust into a number one role, one that he\u2019s not best suited for at this point in his career while Steven Stamkos<\/a> can play down the middle but is generally viewed as a better winger now.\u00a0 If Bourque, who signed a six-year, $33MM contract soon after being acquired, can come in and fill a regular spot down the middle and continue to chip in offensively, his addition could wind up being one of the better ones league-wide this summer.<\/p>\n

MacFarland also spoke about what else he\u2019d like to do roster-wise.\u00a0 Acknowledging that it\u2019s probably not going to be easy to do, he noted that he\u2019d like to add some puck skill on the back end.\u00a0 Beyond Roman Josi<\/a>, the Predators don\u2019t have a lot of mobility or offensive upside on the blueline.<\/p>\n

Brady Skjei<\/a> has had some offensive success in the past but is coming off a quieter year on that front while Justin Barron<\/a> hasn\u2019t been able to replicate the production he had in the lower levels.\u00a0 Of the other four blueliners on their roster, they\u2019re more the stay-at-home defensive variety.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the Preds, there isn\u2019t much in the way of mobility available on the open market.\u00a0 Former Predator Nick Blankenburg<\/a> is one of the better offensive fits available while veteran John Klingberg<\/a> would also fit the bill, though they already have seven defenders signed for the upcoming season.\u00a0 If MacFarland does find an addition he wants to make, they have ample cap room to do so with the team holding over $7.6MM in space, per PuckPedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the back end, Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean wonders<\/a> if MacFarland should be taking a different approach.\u00a0 Instead, he suggests that Nashville should look at moving Josi.\u00a0 The long-time captain has two years left on his contract at a $9.059MM AAV. \u00a0\u00a0At 36 now, there\u2019s no guarantee that he\u2019ll be signing on for a new deal after that.<\/p>\n

While MacFarland has been active in adding pieces to help them now, he also spoke of wanting to build a sustainable contender.\u00a0 Given the teams ahead of them in the Central Division, the window to contend may very well come after Josi\u2019s deal expires.\u00a0 Accordingly, dealing him now could better set them up to try to contend down the road.<\/p>\n

Josi has had some challenges staying healthy lately. He missed 14 games last season with an upper-body injury and 29 games in 2024-25 due to a pair of injuries. He\u2019s still quite productive when available, however, and put up 13 goals and 42 assists in 68 games last season. But while dealing the captain would be the more prudent play long-term, it seems unlikely they\u2019d consider it now given the additions they\u2019ve made to the roster and the desire to add more puck skill on the back end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Mavrik Bourque has spent the bulk of his NHL playing time on the wing in Dallas, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,241263,760,448,45344,82],"class_list":["post-841301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mavrik-bourque","tag-nashville-predators","tag-nhl","tag-roman-josi","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}