Barry Trotz has been very, very aggressive on the free agent market.
He was able to sign forwards Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault… As well as adding talent to the team’s blue line, by offering defenseman Brady Skjei a long-term contract.
The Preds – to put it another way – have really improved in recent days.
But in Nashville lately, there’s been a lot of talk about Mitch Marner.
The Leafs’ forward found himself at the heart of several rumours sending him to the Predators, but the scenario never materialized in the end.
That’s not to say he’s not wanted in Nashville, however.
Ryan O’Reilly, who spent time with Marner on the Leafs, tried to convince Barry Trotz to release his former Toronto teammate.
With the Predators’ recent signings, it’s logical to believe that the project won’t happen.
I say that because, at the time of writing, the Preds have a current cap space of… $0.
That means Barry Trotz would have to send salary to Toronto in the deal to make it work on the payroll, and that’s not going to happen either.
At least, I can’t see Trotz trading Filip Forsberg ($8.5 M per season) or Roman Josi ($9.059 M per season) to acquire Marner.
We’re talking about two pillars of the team here, after all.
Ultimately, Brad Treliving could have danced with Barry Trotz by having one particular player in his sights: Yaroslav Askarov.
That would have made sense to me, because the Leafs have been having goaltending problems for a thousand years (I’m exaggerating a bit).
Inmy opinion, this is a missed opportunity for the GM in Toronto …Because Treliving could have maximized Marner’s value by going after the best goaltending prospect in the NHL .
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