The first 25 games are in the books for the Nashville Predators under the vision of general manager Barry Trotz.
While it’s not a team more than five games above .500 this group has been pushing for their future to be bright. While Trotz started that process this summer at the draft he added some veterans to the lineup via free agency to install a culture he expects to reside in the locker room.
Before David Poile retired he and Trotz decided to trade Mattias Ekholm over to the Edmonton Oilers for Tyson Barrie, Reid Schaefer, and a 1st round pick that became Tanner Molendyk.
Now Barrie missed his last two of three games and in that time frame has been granted permission to speak to other teams. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Barrie’s displeasure last weekend and since then Trotz is “disappointed” the news surfaced.
“Tyson’s game hasn’t translated as well as we’d like with us this year,” Trotz said. “Tyson came in last year and did a tremendous job coming into his last year as a UFA and was having a tough time not being on the first powerplay. Just with what we do with our defense and how we play. He felt he wasn’t quite fitting in.”
Barrie was a healthy scratch for the first time as a Predator and hadn’t been one before either. Different players handle it differently but this is what Barrie opted to do.
“Hopefully, if it’s not a fit then maybe look for other opportunities. Everything is dictated on his play, he has to be a good player for us so he can be a good player for anybody in the league if we decide to move him.”
Barrie’s agent Bayne Pettinger has been the one orchestrating this endeavor. Trotz said he was disappointed that the conversation was leaked about Barrie being unhappy with his predicament.
“There’s only about four people in the world that know about any conversation. Somehow it got out so it very disappointing that it got out,” Trotz said. “It did not come from the Preds that I know 100%. Someone felt it should be out there and put it out.
“From my standpoint, we will get on the phone and say Tyson is not happy in his situation right now. Are there any takers? There might be there might not. His agent as well I’m sure behind the scenes will be doing the same thing.”
Trotz has made it clear he doesn’t want players coming to N
ashville to retire but to win and shape a revered franchise in the NHL.
“If you don’t want to be part of the organization or feel like you can’t contribute we’ll work together to get you in a better situation,” Trotz said. “But I’m not going to do anything to hurt the Predators or team’s chances of winning based on a player’s reaction to sitting out a game.”
Plain and simple Barrie has to play better Trotz stated.
“We usually don’t scratch players. We just feel there’s a better ceiling for Tyson himself.”
However, Nashville has shown confidence in their depth at defense when skaters have been out with injuries this season.
When Luke Schenn landed on injured reserve to start the year and Ryan McDonagh nursed a lower-body injury Nashville recalled Marc Del Gaizo and not long after Spencer Stastney.
“Guys like Del Gaizo come up and it’s seamless because of the skill set they play with in Milwaukee,” Trotz said. “You look at how Stastney has played and basically has almost unseated some guys based on his short window of playing games so far.”
As the Predators got healthy Trotz said they found more out about their defensive corps. One aspect involves their captain Roman Josi who has 18 points in 25 games.
“We found out that Josi feels more comfortable on the right side than the left,” Trotz said. “Analytically, he’s shown he and McDonagh produce really well when they’re together.”
When Nashville got McDonagh back from his injury the coaching staff had to make a tough choice in sitting Dante Fabbro. Which in turn led Schenn to be the seventh defenseman when he was ready to go. Nashville has now dressed seven defensemen four times this season.
“Maybe it them for a loop unfortunately but at the same time it does say a lot about our depth coming and that’s exciting,” Trotz said.
Listen to the full interview with Barry Trotz here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4VKACA29dV87gMVoDMdrDD?si=edaa02ae2375455f
Follow Nick Kieser on Twitter/X: @KieserNick
Photos courtesy of Nashville Predators
In my opinion which carries no weight at all is Carrier is just not getting it done as he did a couple of years ago. I would take Barrie over him any time. He gets pushed around a lot.
He’s got some room to get acclimated this season. He & Jeremy have been a solid duo so we’ll see how Alex does as he continues to play in a contract season. Barrie is meant to be a two-way guy & hasn’t been as effective as Trotz would like. Trotz has liked what he’s seen from the younger guys this year including Alex.