David Poile confirms the Predators are getting trade calls.

Poile reluctantly admits he's been in talks.

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Published 3 years ago
David Poile confirms the Predators are getting trade calls.
Associated Press

Things have been incredibly quiet on the trade front in the National Hockey League, but perhaps somewhat surprisingly it sounds like there are still some significant talks happening behind the scenes. 

Nashville Predators general manager David Poile was recently a guest on SiriusXM's NHL Network Radio when he was asked about possible improvements he may yet make to his team during this current offseason. Poile's Predators have a significant amount of cap space at their disposal so the addition of an unrestricted free agent via free agency, an offer sheet to a restricted free agent, or even a trade could all in theory be in the cards for the Preds.

"Could we use another top forward? Could we use somebody like a Mike Hoffman that could score some goals? Absolutely," admitted Poile. "We are also in a situation where we have some flexibility in terms of our cap situation."

Poile would go on to elaborate on how he could use those cap dollars at different points in the year, including now, at the trade deadline, or possibility even later down the road. It was when he got to talking on the topics of trades however that he hinted at the possibility of using that cap space to take advantage of some of the difficult situations his adversaries have created for themselves.

"We are getting calls virtually every week on some ideas from others teams coming to us, or us going to other teams," said the Preds GM. "There's teams that you know are in a little bit of a cap situation, that don't have the flexibility that we have right now."

It's impossible to know which teams for certain have contacted the Predators but given that they are teams looking to take advantage of the Predators cap space, we can take some educated guesses. The Tampa Bay Lightning are no doubt at the very top of that list with their budget already over the cap and two restricted free agents still as of yet unsigned. The Las Vegas Golden Knights are no doubt on that list as well after adding defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and retaining goaltender Robin Lehner on huge new deals, while also failing to move goaltender Marc Andre Fleury

"If we had a chance, like you are teasing me there a little bit, to improve our club you could possibly see us do something like that," said Poile in conclusion.

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