NHL Rumors: The Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins Will Have Flexibility and Options

The Nashville Predators have a lot of flexibility and a path in pencil

Brooks Bratten: Nashville Predators GM Barry Trotz on the 102.5 The Game on Friday: “We’re not done. This is sort of a ‘sweep the porch’ situation. We’ve got a lot of flexibility…”

Trotz added on their future.

“The plan has always been in pen…the path is in pencil.”

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Nick Kieser: Predators GM Trotz said that there wasn’t a deal that was close enough to go to Ryan O’Reilly‘s agent.

“I felt at least one more year here with our young guys.”

The Pittsburgh Penguins are loaded with draft picks, which creates some options

Michelle Crechiolo of Pens Inside Scoop: The Pittsburgh Penguins have loaded up on draft picks for the next three drafts. Penguins GM Kyle Dubas said the extra picks will give them the opportunity to acquire more cap space, draft picks, or adding someone.

“If there are opportunities to use the excess capital that we’ve accumulated, whether it’s cap space or draft picks or to add players to the program to help propel it ahead, we won’t hesitate to do that.

“I think I’ve always come in and said there is no ambition on my end to have this take any longer than it needs to take, both for the city and for the people who have put in a lot. That’s not just players, but staff that has been around for a long time. There is a certain level, and when the level drops off, you don’t want the standards and the core ideology to erode. That’s what we worked towards each day.”

They’re goal remains to build around an aging core to give them one or two more shots at the Cup. They won’t move all their picks and need to remain patient.

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“How it lines up with the older players, all I can give is my pledge that we are going through everything we can to attempt to have them all have one last chance, or multiple, depending on how long they play. I’m not going to start to doubt with these guys.”

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