Preds expected to make top-4 defender available ahead of the trade deadline
It initially seemed like the Nashville Predators were waving the white flag in the summer of 2021 when they traded Ryan Ellis to the Philadelphia Flyers and Viktor Arvidsson to the Los Angeles Kings. They were also trying to get out of the rich contracts of Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene as they were left exposed ahead of the expansion draft for the Seattle Kraken. Eventually they lost Calle Jarnkrok but the belief was that Nashville was entering a rebuild.
They ended up making the playoffs, extended Filip Forsberg and Mattias Ekholm, then traded for Ryan McDonagh and signed Nino Niederreiter earlier this summer. This season hasn't gone to plan and as the deadline approaches, it seems as thought a quality top-4 defenseman is going to be available with term left on his contract.
According to Frank Seravalli's top-25 trade board, Ekholm is currently 7th on the list and he believes that because the Predators have regressed this season and are filled with expensive contracts that are hard to trade, Ekholm becomes an option to recoup assets.
He has 3 years remaining after this season is over with a very reasonable cap hit of $6.25 million. Asking McDonagh to waive his no-trade clause might not work a second time around and Ekholm doesn't carry any no-trade stipulations in his contract, so he does make some sense for the Preds to want to move.
Ekholm currently has 11 points in 35 games this season, 261 points across 697 career games and between 2015-16 and 2021-22, he scored 223 points in 517 games while averaging almost 23 minutes a game. He is going to be a hot commodity if made available since teams are always looking for defensemen. He has term remaining, he's a big body that can move very well for his size, and can play in all situations but primarily as a penalty killer and shutdown defender.
The only players who currently rank ahead of Ekholm on Seravalli's list include:
1) Bo Horvat 2) Jakob Chychrun3) Patrick Kane4) Timo Meier5) Jonathan Toews6) John Klingberg
| POLL | ||
4 JANVIER | 170 ANSWERS Preds expected to make top-4 defender available ahead of the trade deadline Should the Leafs inquire on Mattias Ekholm in Nashville? | ||
| Yes | 100 | 58.8 % |
| No | 70 | 41.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
