Former Nashville Predator Thinks Team Should Trade 1 Of 2 Stars

The Nashville Predators have had a very poor season from start to nearly finish and not much has worked out. It was a massive offseason bringing in three of the top free agents, but not only did it take time to adjust, two of them are past their primes and changing multiple core pieces is tough to manage.

Former Predators goalie, Carter Hutton, thinks that the team should move off of one of Steven Stamkos or Jonathan Marchessault this offseason. That is easier said than done as both have multiple years left and fairly high AAVs.

Marchessault and Stamkos are second and third on the Predators in scoring respectively, but neither of them have hit 25 goals or 50 points on the season. That is a big drop-off and unexpected underperformances from a duo making $13.5 million while playing top-6 minutes and on the top power play all season.

Marchessault scored a career high 42 goals last season and finished with 69 points. He is sitting at 19 goals and 49 points this season in nine fewer games. As for Stamkos, he scored 40 goals and was over a point-per-game with 81 points in 79 games last season. He has 24 goals and 46 points along with being a -31. Marchessault isn't much better at -26.

A team can somewhat deal with one major drop-off, but multiple by first-year players is very tough and from where Nashville is going to finish, really hurt them. The team went through a big change in the summer and then changed a lot over the course of the season. That's what losing does, especially when expectations were so high.

I don't necessarily agree with one of Stamkos or Marchessault needing to be traded this summer as it would take a great deal of work and the Predators will lose that trade. I do think the team needs to be on watch though. Barry Trotz, the GM, should definitely be watching because the season after may be more likely and a better place to make a big change again.