Confirmed Trade: [SJS/NSH] Yaroslav Askarov, Nolan Burke, 2025 COL 3rd round pick for David Edstrom, Magnus Chrona, 2025 SJS/VGK 1st round pick (top 10 conditional)

[GaboriklessWild]

I hated the move then. I hate it more today. Define good center prospect because I don't consider a guy who might turn into a 3C a good center prospect. High end of this guy is slim at turning into a 2C. To me, that's not good enough for a goalie who's high end is elite and should turn into a top 10 goalie. Add to that a late 1st round pick in a poor draft and I'm like, you turned an 11OA pick into a 3C who probably won't see the NHL for 3-4 years, a late 1st round pick who at best sees the NHL in 4-5 years and Chrona.

The more I think about it and post about it the more annoyed I get.

Yeah, Edstrom doesn't look like an elite high-end prospect. Probably Trotz was just hyping him up because he knew he wasn't getting good value.

 

[Gh24]

Askarov might just already be better than Saros

I value goalies for both skill and consistency. I'm not ready to make any judgements on such a low sample size, but he may end up being better and that would kinda sting. I mean he had his issue with the organisation (and I really disliked the demands with nothing to show for in NHL) and I appreciate the fact that they didn't give in, but they also kind of cemented the outcome when they signed Saros long term. If you have a (russian) goalie with temper like that, you can't expect them to sit back and wait for an opportunity to probably present itself somewhere in the future. Maybe.

I'm a fan of guys playing their career in one place, so I was a little conflicted about shipping out Josi, Forsberg and Saros while I knew this could be as perfect of an opportunity to rebuild as you ever going to get. You have your possible future franchise goalie in the pipeline, good prospect pool and some good veteran players and for all we know, maybe could have got an established young(ish) player or two in return.

It's always easy to be smart in hindsight, but man what could have been. Fully understanding it could have been a disaster, but again, in hindsight we were facing one anyway

I'm a bit biased as I'm really not a fan of him and how he played the situation (nor how the organisation played the situation either for the record), but I don't think he's better than Saros at the moment. We've seen goalie prospects rise fast and go down even faster. I'm ready to admit he's better once he's been better for long enough, consistently enough.

 

[Viqsi]

I hope Nashville wins the lottery. Hagens would be perfect for their future...and leave Schaefer for the Sharks.

It's difficult for me to not reflexively answer "we won't", because that's the Jackets' curse and we're talking about the Preds.

...I've been in this kind of situation way too damn often.

 

[Gnashville]

It's difficult for me to not reflexively answer "we won't", because that's the Jackets' curse and we're talking about the Preds.

...I've been in this kind of situation way too damn often.

Predators more likely to end the season on a 10 game winning streak than win the lottery

 

[coooldude]

Predators more likely to end the season on a 10 game winning streak than win the lottery

assuming a 50% chance at a win, a 10 game win streak is 0.09% likely.

If preds somehow crush it through April and win 30 of 42 games, ending up at 92 points and likely on the outside looking in, their lottery odds are above that in any case. If you're talking about the 1OA odds, well, the likelihood they finish 11th or worst is pretty high at this point, and those odds would be 3%+ so...

"well akshually..." they are more likely to win the lottery

 

[Viqsi]

Predators more likely to end the season on a 10 game winning streak than win the lottery

You say that as though it's unique to the Preds.

Every team towards the bottom feels that way and there are good reasons why it seems to happen. The easy, most noticable symptom is that you'll start seeing the opposition start their backups more and more often. What it amounts to is that when you're that far behind, teams will tend to slow down and not press as hard against you. Yes, yes, 110% all the time everytime, champions always give it their all, blah blah blah - it's all paper talk. The truth is that every team takes their foot off the gas a little bit when they're up against a Known Bad Team, and that makes it that much easier for the Known Bad Team to get an "unexpected" win. Have that happen with several teams in a row, and suddenly you have a "late season hot streak". (Or, sometimes, a "mid season hot streak" that cools off once media hype takes notice of said streak and other teams stop letting up.)

The point is, that's the case with everybody. So it's already built into how the rankings will play out. It's not the Preds uniquely screwing up their chances; it's the universal nature of the thing.

 

[OrrNumber4]

I still don't think that Nashville did too badly. Vegas's pick will likely turn out worse than "expected", but they still got a good prospect, and Chrona could be something. What more could they have gotten for a goaltender who didn't want to be there?

 

[PredsV82]

This trade will haunt the Preds if and only if Askarov turns out to be a generational talent. If he's just another "good" goalie it will probably end up a wash.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Going to the game in Nashville on the 21st. Looking forward to seeing Askarov shut out the Preds

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

This trade will haunt the Preds if and only if Askarov turns out to be a generational talent. If he's just another "good" goalie it will probably end up a wash.

I don't think he has to be "generational"... like not Roy, Brodeur, or Hasek level? He can just be Rinne/Saros level and I think it will still end up being a net loss for us. He might still crash and burn, but early returns suggest he'll reach or surpass Saros sooner rather than later.

And we'll be tied to Saros for 8 years and paying him $61,290,000 over those 8 years while we watch Askarov's ascension and Saros' decline.

Had we instead traded Saros for a late 1st + decent prospect, which I hope we might have been able to (before extending him anyway), we'd have the same trade acquisition futures in hand, a longer window with a top (not necessarily generational) starting goalie, and possibly have saved a good wad of $$$ along the way (possibly not though if Askarov's salary shoots into the new Shesterkin realm down the road).

I'll be pleasantly surprised if this ends up a "wash" for us. It's not impossible. But only half a year into the 9 year evaluation period, I'm not particularly optimistic.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Tanking. We have a top 3 pick plus 2 more 1sts and 2 2nds this year. We have about 8 recent 1sts looking to break through. Hopefully he'll fire Brunette after we get our top pick and come away with a Hagens.

He traded the top goalie prospect in the league because his plan is to....tank and rebuild?

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

He traded the top goalie prospect in the league because his plan is to....tank and rebuild?

Yeah, his plan was definitely not to tank and rebuild. I suspect it still isn't, even today. Somehow, the Preds will probably find a way to win enough games to slip outside the top-5 in the draft, and Trotz will be right back on his original plan... sign Moar Veteran UFAs in the hopes of quickly turning things around for next season. Same as his plan was for this season.

 

[JPT]

He traded the top goalie prospect in the league because his plan is to....tank and rebuild?

I think that post was in reply to what Trotz is doing generally, which does seem to at least be accurate in outcome if not in intention. He traded Askarov because Askarov went public about wanting out. He still hasn't committed to any kind of rebuild even now, when his team is near the bottom and his restructuring clearly failed.