{"id":299871,"date":"2025-11-18T21:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/299871\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T21:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:30:09","slug":"jeff-marek-believes-nashville-predators-are-having-conversation-about-filip-forsbergs-trade-availability-you-cant-ask-a-player-to-go-through-a-rebuild-twice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/299871\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Marek believes Nashville Predators are having conversation about Filip Forsberg\u2019s trade availability: \u2018You can\u2019t ask a player to go through a rebuild twice\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nashville Predators appear headed for another poor season under general manager Barry Trotz. After finishing as the third-worst team in the NHL last season, the Predators are off to a 6-10-4 start to the 2025-26 campaign, better than only the Calgary Flames (5-12-3).<\/p>\n

Nashville has not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since the 2017-18 season and has missed the postseason altogether in two of the past three years. Trotz took over as GM of the team ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, putting the club through a major retooling process that hockey insider Jeff Marek believes some of the team\u2019s star players, like winger Filip Forsberg, won\u2019t be willing to go through again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve wondered about a player like Filip Forsberg,\u201d Marek said on the Sekeres & Price Show<\/a>. \u201cEssentially, I\u2019ve been trying to make the point in the past couple of weeks here with Nashville that I think it\u2019s reasonable to ask a player to go through one rebuild, but considering how short careers are, you can\u2019t ask them to do it twice. You can\u2019t, and that\u2019s why one of the players that I\u2019d be wondering about with Nashville as this thing continues to spiral is Filip Forsberg. I think that\u2019s a team right now that\u2019s having that conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forsberg leads the Predators in scoring with 15 points (8g, 7a) in 20 games. The 31-year-old forward has led Nashville in scoring the past two years, including a career-best 94-point (48g, 46a) 2023-24 campaign.<\/p>\n

The Swedish star is in the third year of an eight-year, $68 million contract ($8.5M AAV) he signed with the Predators during the 2022 offseason. Forsberg has a full no-movement clause in his contract, so he would have to sign off on any move that the Predators try to make.<\/p>\n

While the Predators seem set to be a lottery team again this year, there are rumblings around the league that they won\u2019t be making any big decisions anytime soon, based on how their new majority owner, Bill Haslam, wants to operate the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new owner of the Predators, Bill Haslam, traveled with them early in the year,\u201d Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman said on Monday\u2019s episode of the 32 Thoughts Podcast<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve been told that he thinks the NHL is very leaky, and I think he\u2019s trying to keep his thoughts private. I really believe that he would like to give the Predators some time before he makes any decisions. I\u2019ve heard this about him: he\u2019s not rash, he\u2019s not looking to jump into anything. He really wants to think and say, \u2018I really want to make the best long-term, intelligent, thoughtful, information-aided decision about the Predators.’\u201d<\/p>\n

If Forsberg becomes available, he\u2019ll likely have a wide range of suitors around the league. He could be an attractive option for a team like the Washington Capitals, who are in dire need of a scoring boost and should have plenty of space to both acquire a player like Forsberg at the trade deadline and then build around him heading into next season.<\/p>\n

The Capitals originally drafted Forsberg with the 11th overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft. In a widely panned trade, believed to be one of the worst in franchise history, the Caps dealt Forsberg to the Predators at the 2013 trade deadline for veteran winger Martin Erat and center Michael Latta, before he ever played a game for the team.<\/p>\n

If the Predators undergo a roster teardown, they will have many veteran assets beyond Forsberg, attractive to teams around the NHL. Other potentially available names could include Ryan O\u2019Reilly, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, Roman Josi, Brady Skjei, and Juuse Saros.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nashville Predators appear headed for another poor season under general manager Barry Trotz. After finishing as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-299871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}