Nashville made a trade with the Colorado, and you mentioned Houston, he's available, or he was available. Now he's in Nashville. He's no longer available. Here's the timeline of events, and I'm going to shout out Leifsneedgod on Twitter because this is a funny one. Nashville signed Scott Wedgewood to play in the NHL over Askarov this year. Askarov got pissed, requested a trade because he wants to play in the NHL. Sure. Then they actually do the thing and grant him his trade request, which they didn't have to do. Then Then Nashville trades the guy that they lost Askarov over to Colorado to get Justus Annenen. I want to add to that.

Wait, they lost?

They lost Askarov to sign Wedgewood. When they signed Wedgewood, it pissed Askarov off, and he's like, I'm out of here trading.

Wasn't it the Sarros contract? It was Sarros.

It wasn't Wedgewood. There was also the Wedgewood thing. Yeah. Because he was at least supposed to be the backup.

That's bending history. Yeah.

He posted that cryptic, I'm That's a bad thing when Sarros signed the extension.

That's when we started talking about it, was when Sarros kicked it, signed that extension. He thought he was the heir. Exactly.

Then they signed Sarros forever, and he's like, Oh, I guess I'm never getting the Nashville job.

It's like, there's no place for me to be a starting goal tender. He never wanted to Scott Wedgewood's job. He wanted Sauros's.

Now, not that Ascrov has been perfect since he went to San Jose because he hasn't. He's been up and down and that thing. But Wedgewood has been traded for Justus Annenen, and this is supposedly going to help the Colorado Avalanche with their goal-tending situation. You can see why. Wedgewood's had solid numbers from time to time.

I think it will. He's had a bad season this year, but Nashville has been bad. Over his career, he's been a good goalie.

Now, it's interesting because there is a press conference from Steven Stamkos that I think we should watch. You guys see this?

Yes, it's depressing.

Jesse, I'm sending it over to you in case you I need it. The Nashville Predators are not looking like the best team right now. I thought by now, it's December second, as of this recording, that they would have this figured out. There are teams that have figured it out later, and as we saw with the St. Louis Blues, gone on to win the Cup. But this is a team that played so well defensively, specifically in round one last year, that I personally thought, how can they be denied? They've got braided Shay, they got Jonathan Marsh or so, and they got Steven Stamkos. But the problem they have is centermen. They're not deep enough at center. We're finding out whether or not Barry Trotz, a legendary head coach, can be Barry Trotz, legendary general manager as well. Have a look at Steven Stamkos and what he has to say here. And really, we're looking for the tone.

How mystifying to you is that lack of offense given to the people in this room who have scored so much in their careers before?

I mean, I have some thoughts on that, but like I said, you got guys There's a lot of things that can put the buck in the net for sure, but we need to find ways to generate, getting open and guys seeing things and guys finding seams.

It's tough. I mean, it's tough to score. It's the hardest thing to in the NHL score goals. And obviously, we got guys that have done it. It's a little different this year. You're in a funk, and you try to find ways. We're not going to quit here. But we need to find a way, myself included. It's tough.

Man, there's a solid 15 seconds where he doesn't say anything. Here, can we please play the beginning of that again?

The people in this room have so much in their careers before.

I have some thoughts on that, but it's... Yeah. Like I said, you got guys that can put the buck in.

It's nearly 20 seconds.

Where he doesn't say much.

From the time the question is asked.

Getting open and guys seeing things and guys finding seams. Yeah.

I mean, there's a lot. I mean, there's 20 seconds worth of unsaid things there. It's not as simple as we have these good players, and they score goals. It's not a video game. And Nashville's chemistry is bad. It's straight up bad. Stamkos, at his At this point in his career, his shot is still a touch of death. You have to be wary of him on the ice if his teammates get him the fuck, and there's the rub. He's not in Tampa anymore. Nikita Kutrov is nowhere to be found. Braden Point is nowhere to be found. The weapons they have up front and the weapons they have on that power play are absurd. And I'm not sure who his center is right now, but I remember at the beginning of the season, it was Tommy Novak. Is it still Tommy Novak?

We can find out.

Who, bless his soul, is not Braden freaking Point. They're not even the same.

According to Puckpedia, most recent line combinations are Fordsberg, O'Reilly, Nyquist, Stamkos, Novy, Novy, Marsha So.

Top six there. So So I guess here's my question is, Novak... Novak looks like the President here because he's in the middle of two armed guns. Mark Ruchasow and Stamkos can both kill you. Is he doing a good enough shot getting these guys, or is he doing a good enough job getting these guys to fuck? And with respect, who is that third line?

Well, I know Luca Vangelisca and Mark Janakowski. Mark Jankowski.

Who's Fetchkow?

He's got to be.

He was just called up.

He's 21? Yeah. Okay, so he's young. What Did frigging Jason York say about youth up the middle?

What did he say?

Sometimes a team that's too young up the middle struggles, although they're not young up the middle. It's 33 with O'Reilly, 27 with Novak, and Colton Sissons has been in the NHL for a while, a surprising amount of time.

He's in year six of a seven-year deal.

He's one of those magical guys who just puts together a several hundred game career of being a fourth-liner.

Do you know Svećka's first name? Can you guess?

I'm going to say-Andre is the funniest answer. Alexi.

He's got five career games. I only know who he is because he scored his first career goal that yesterday.Let's go.For the day before. So, yeah, congrats to him. Five career games, one goal, zero assists. What's his first name?

Andre. Adam?

I said Andre. Or no, I said Alexi.

Alexi Fedor.

Fedor. Fedor Svećka.

I like that.

Yeah, but that's not the greatest up the middle. You're going to lack production when all of your stars are on the wing. You need star centermen to be a really good team. At least not star, but at least solid centermen.

Are these players bad or is the team makeup bad? Because here's what I want to say. On defense, I'm just going to point out that Roman Yosey has got seven goals because he's Roman Yosey. He's Roman from Yosey. The next closest is versus Braed Shea with two. Okay. You got Carrier, he's got one, Luke Shen's got one, and the rest of the guys have none. Okay? It's fine. Whatever.

Yeah, they're defensemen. We're not asking for goals here.

But Dante Fabro has three goals in nine games since being claimed by Columbus. Yeah. So was it Dante Fabro or was it the Nashville Predators, as Steven Stamko said, are not generating chances?

Adding Fabro onto the conversation about, Oh, what do the Wild know about the Blue Jackets guys? I wouldn't want Columbus identified a pretty talented right-shot defenseman.

That they could use.

Young in his career who wasn't getting used properly, and all of a sudden, I think Andrew Burnet. I forgot his name for a sec. Andrew Burnet's job has been called into question. What the hell is Trotz doing? He is just buttoned Cut and mashing.

He's just doing shit. Well, and Trotz doesn't get a lot of criticism, and I understand why. He's a Hall of Fame, the second... If he's not already in the Hall of Fame, because now guys can just get into the Hall of Fame when they're still coaching and working when they couldn't, when Pat Burns was alive. But Barry Trotz is a Hall of Famer, no question. But as I started this segment, I said, Is he a Hall of Fame coach? Yes. Is he a Hall of Fame general manager? I guess we'll see. But what's very clear is some of that money that was spent on Marsha So and Stamkos should have been spent on a center this summer.

Yes.

Yeah, but it's not too late.

It isn't.

They have three first-round draft picks this upcoming draft. That's crazy. They have $7 million in cap space, if I remember correctly from just looking. That's enough to go out and do something if your idea is, We're going to win this season, which it looks like when you did all of this free agency buying.

So they're built like a rebuilding team. But if this goes sideways, they're going to rebuild.

I I think that was a lot of just pissing in the wind.

Yeah, he's button-mashing. He's out there doing shit. We're trading Askarov for what? Not a ton. Okay. We're signing Zarros and fucking Wedgwood.

And then flip Wedgwood.

And then we're going to flip him for Annen. We're going to get a pick somehow. I don't understand how I got the pick. And what else?

We're going to-Send a top draft pick to Pittsburgh.

Yeah. We're going to send Tomasino to Pittsburgh for nothing. What's he been in Pittsburgh? Great. Shit. All right. We're going to lose Fabro to Columbus for nothing. What's he been? Great. Shit.

It's weird. If he's doing all this stuff, why not do stuff that makes your team better and acquire a center with all of your draft capital?

No one wants to give one up.

Pay for it. You have the money.

Well, and now he's desperate. And now, I mean, who is not... Oh, no. I respect this man too much to throw this out there, but I'm going to throw it out there. If you're a GM in the NHL, in your morning, you should be calling Barry Trotz before you have your morning coffee every day. This is a wounded animal who has His itchy thumbs, and he's dying to scratch them all over his phone and make some weird trade.

This is a man who already used the, well, we'll rebuild card, which that is the last card. They've gotten worse. He started with the... That's crazy. Yeah.

That's crazy. I don't think he's honest when he says we're going to rebuild or anything like that. Because it came from a radio interview. It could have been taken out of context because who knows how long he was talking when that one part gets clipped and all that fun stuff. But I think the idea with the Nashville Predators is to win this season. And if your idea is that, then you can't sit on your hands at this point of the season because eventually it's going to be too late. And you have so many assets to move plus cap space. You should be doing something that benefits the team and not just selling off pieces.

The Predators. So I love NHLtradetracker. Com, and the Predators page is genuinely funny because everyone like the Rangers, Chris Jury, Jeff Gordon, Glenn Sather, Neil Smith, Phyllis. It goes back and back and back, and they have so many guys. Nashville Predators, 1997 to 2023. David Poil, 2023 to present. Barry Trotz. That's it. That's the whole list. What was the Yakov Trennan Trade last year? Remember that? No. They were offloading guys and acquiring pics. Because they're rebuilding, I think. But that was in the middle of them being really hot. And then they acquired Anthony Bouvillier. They got Jason Zucker. They got rid of McDonald. They're out there button-mashing. I don't understand the direction or anything with the Nashville Predators. They got more pics at the draft. Cody Glass Trade. I forgot about that one.

It's just trying shit. It's interesting. It's going to be one to watch because now, listen, the reality is that you can put it on the players all you want. But if they're not finding it, the next probable move is Andrew Burnet. And then what? And listen, we're asking the question, who's going to press the Coach Q button first? Is it Detroit? Is it Montreal? Is it Nashville? Who's going to do it? Somebody's going to do it.

Joel Cuenville doesn't give you a good second-line center. I agree, no. A good third-line center. It doesn't help Barry Trotz.

He had Jonathan Taves. That guy's not coming through the door. Barry Trotz has made 12 trades since March seventh.

Of this year.

This calendar year. That's a lot of trades.

It's a shitload of trades and lost two guys to waivers. Yeah, it's like playing an NHL video game.

Call Barry.

What button is the fucking Try Shit button? The Try Shit button? He's just trying shit. Yeah. He's a kid with an iPad. And he's going to accidentally order something on your credit card. Not every great player is a good coach. We've seen it a bunch of times. Not every great coach is a good GM. I think it's pretty rare, actually. How many great coaches became GMs?

I don't know, Steve.

Not a ton because they stayed coaches because they were so good at it.

Because they're good at it, yeah. I I mean, I think a good coach works in consultation with the general manager. Sure. But I think it is an adjustment to go from a coach to a GM, which Barry has done under the tutelage of David Poey a little bit and that thing. But I feel like there's a lack of understanding standing within the predators. It's got to fall in more than just Barry, but he's the ultimate guy responsible of what their needs were this year. And I think they looked at the glittery prizes available. I don't blame them for signing Marsha or Stamko or Katie Shay. At all. But no, I mean-The center thing-I thought it was good. There were centers available. Chandler Stevenson was right there. He would have been great. Plays defense, too.

I was about to say, yeah, but you spent all that money on... Oh, wait, you have seven million dollars in Capspace. You have a Chandler Stevenson-size hole in your Capsituation. Every morning, you got to call this guy.

I can totally see Andrew Burnet being the fall guy, though. That's what happened in Florida. You mentioned Joel Quinville, he got Andrew Burnet. Did he not get his job taken by Joel Quinville?

No, Andrew took Joel.

Or was it Paul Maurice?

No. So Joel Quinville lost his job. Burnet took over, was the All-Star coach, won the Jack Adams, did he not?

Yeah, but then they got murdered in the second round, right?

Yeah, and then was fired. And then, of course, Maurice.

And then Maurice came in and everyone was like, Why did you fire Brunet when he had such a good season? And then Maurice wins. Well, he goes to the finals and then goes to the finals again on Wednesday.

It's also worth mentioning, though, that Andrew Brunet coached this team last year to the playoffs in that 20-game unbeaten in the regular season. The U2 streak.

Yeah, and what changed?

Steve's playing his phone like an N64 controller.

Yeah, he's button-mashing.