If he's worth the hype, why would Buffalo be looking to move on from him?

Guess HockeyMod is mad at the team again.

5-4 OTL

TLDR: Barry really likes this Barron guy. He isn't targeting one guy as THE GUY but he's still center shopping. He was asked directly about Cozens after mentioning he talks to Kevyn Adams often, but of course he's not going to say yes, I'm working on a deal. There doesn't have to be a fall guy (AKA Bruno) if the season doesn't turn around and it doesn't go as planned. No regrets about his big swings; timing is everything. Some talk about Duchene's buyout comments. Confirms again he offered Lankinen a "substantial" contract so for the love of god people, WE TRIED TO KEEP HIM.

Jared starts with a rant about how he didn’t like Carrier.

Was that move waving the flag saying the 2024-25 season is probably a waste?

Absolutely not. When I started this, the plan hasn’t really changed. I’ve always been very honest. There’s two players we tried to acquire last year, Annunen and Barron. We weren’t able to get them last year, but we did get them this year.

Were there any other players … well, you just said that about the last guy. Then you said in the Athletic what you just said to me, that you tried to get Barron last year -

I did.

So this isn’t like when you trade for someone you’re going to say I tried to get him last year?

No. I do have a pattern, once I lock on to someone or the org does, I’ll pursue it. Sometimes timing … (starts talking about Gibson, wanting to draft him, then getting him, and now him being a pair with Molendyk at the World Juniors).

Barron is a little bit of an underutilized defenseman. Bigger than Carrier, skates well, was getting squeezed out in Montreal. I think there’s more there, five years younger than Carrier.

Carrier is one of my favorites. This business can be brutal because it affects people’s families, you have relationships with players and know what good players they are. But my job is to make this team better now and in the future. There’s no white flag going up. This is about trying to get better. This is a player we think can be better. We’ve done a great job with young defensemen in the org for years. This is a play on that. We got salary cap relief which allows us to go get someone else if the right person is there. Or to resign people that are coming up in the future. This is just identifying a piece to make us better in the future. Alex is really good. If you look at guys like Wilsby, Blankenburg, Stastney, DG, Gravel, we feel that we have enough on defense. The guys that have come in during the absence of Carrier, Lauzon, Josi, we felt that the gap wasn’t that much so it’s time to move on.

They’re tough decisions. Someone asked me do you regret signing Carrier? Not one bit. I know what the market was last year and what the price was for defensemen. Carrier wanted to go to free agency, he checked everything out and decided to come back here. We tried to resign him last year, that was never something that we weren’t going to do. But the timing was right. And I was very fortunate with a good person like Carrier, when the deal happened that he was actually going back home.

Would you have made this trade last year? So at the deadline last year, we talked about Carrier and maybe he’ll be an own rental where we keep him for the playoff run. If Montreal had said we’ll give you Barron last year when you were looking like you were going to have a playoff team, would you have made that move then?

Yes.

That’s how much you like Justin Barron?

Yeah.

Okay. That is a little telling. I do have a theory about you, about what you’re about to do. You won’t say it, but I do feel like we usually get the message. I think you’re cutting fat because I think you think this team is one big NHL core piece away from really being what you want them to be next season and you think you’ll have the opportunity to either trade for that with all of your young assets, or sign it in free agency. That’s why Wedgewood, Fabbro, Carrier are not here. There might be somebody else, Snossis might not be here because he’s got a little bit of money, moveable money. But there might be a guy or two also that’s not here and then that ends up … who knows about the Johansen money and then all of a sudden Barry’s got $8 million and then here’s the trade for so and so. That’s what I think’s happening. Your thoughts?

My thoughts? That’s a good observation.

Is there a guy right now that you’ve circled, that you’re like HIM?

No. I’ll be honest. I haven’t circled the guy. But I am looking for a guy, or two. there’s no white flag. If I can get someone who’s going to be a long term fill for what we’re trying to do, I will go do it. If not … I got asked today, are you done? And I can’t answer that. I think I’ll be quiet for a little while. It’s been unsettling a little bit. We have the freeze starting at midnight for a week or so, so it will be quiet. But I’m always looking. That’s my job, to try to make this team better. It’s about winning. I don’t believe in the tank and giving up. That’s a bad message. I hate when people talk about giving up on stuff.

Sure, but you talked today in the Athletic about having a top five pick and there’s only one way you get a top five pick.

Yeah, but I look at it like NJ last year. Everybody was talking about them being a top pick. We’re in a unique situation. We’ve got some good older players that have lots of game left. We’ve got a glut of young kids coming. And the way our season goes, I don’t know how many injuries we could have, I don’t know how the season’s going to play out, but there’s no tank. We could be a top five pick if the season ended today. That’s reality. And that could be really unique. You’ve got a team that has a lot of prospects coming, you’ve got a team that has some really good star power in it, and you end up with a high pick. That’s rare.

It happened in the WNBA one time. LA had Lisa Leslie and she got pregnant. Because they were bad that year, they got Candice Parker. So they had Candice Parker and Lisa Leslie on the team at the same time and then they won the championship the next year. I do think there is a reality where the Preds have the core group that they have now, this year ends up for whatever reason it doesn’t work. You get the high pick, you get to draft that forward you’ve never had, and then next year you pick up where you thought you were going to be this year.

That would be a great scenario. I don’t know how it’s going to play -

That would involve a lot of losing between now and the end of the year.

And that’s not where I’m at, definitely not where I’m at. I always talk about culture trumps everything. I don’t want the culture to slip. We’ve gone through some hard times. We’re going to be better for it because we’ve gone through it. You don’t want it. You hate losing, hate where you are so you’ve got to change it. You look at the situation, we’re a destination place for free agency. Rangers are. They just traded Kakko to Seattle. They won the lottery, had the first and second pick, and they never went rock bottom. Then they were able to get Panarin and their rebuild was like a year. I feel like there’s a lot of similarities but I can’t guarantee that. There’s so many good teams in the league right now and there’s not much to separate us. I think there’s six or seven teams that are deeper than everybody else and have all the star power and they’re in that window. And then there’s a group of teams of 15 or 16 that are good teams but they may not have enough star power so everybody’s lumped in the mushy middle. But the mushy middle’s getting bigger and wider. You look at a team like Buffalo. They’ve been in a rebuild for about 13 years. I thought this year they would take a step. Maybe they still will, and I hope so because that’s a great market.

I wouldn’t mind if they traded a center to the Predators.

Yeah. But they’ve acquired a lot of top talent. I talk to Adams all the time about flipping some duplicate pieces that we have with them. We haven’t been able to do a deal but at the same time, I understand he’s got some really good pieces.

Do any of those conversations with Adams have to do with Dylan Cozens (LMAO). Can I ask you that directly? I don’t think I can.

I go right through his roster, especially at center ice. You probably have 31 other general managers ask that question. I wouldn’t be the only one.

Philosophically speaking, if I was Adams and if I had a centerman that’s young, former top pick, might or might not be on the trade block, how painful would a trade like that be for you to acquire a player like that with the assets that you’d have to give up?

I don’t even, the player might not be … that’s hard for me to answer because the player’s not out there available. When you trade top players, you have to give up something all the time. The thing I’m finding out in this business, everybody loves their players more than the other team. I love our players more and have a higher value on our players than another team’s GM. They look at it and go well, we’ve got a better player. It seems like no one wants your players and I don’t want their players and vice versa. You invest so much into your own players that there is a natural bump up because you don’t know until you know. I wouldn’t know right now. But I know when I was dealing with our player in Askarov, my ask was high and everybody’s fighting against that. You talk about where the draft value is. It’s always in the eye of the beholder, how much do you want to pay for that luxury. I’ve had different GMs …. If you really like a player …. One thing I remember about Lou Lamoriello, he’s wise. He said if you really love the player, it’s okay to overpay a little bit because you believe in that player, that piece. You don’t have to win the deal. I believe some GMs want to win the deal by a big margin and it’s an ego thing. But if you really like the player, you can overpay because you’re getting what you want and there’s a price to pay. It’s no different than do you want the shiny car, you want the Mercedes or you want the -

Well, this is what I always tell people about free agency in sports and then trade would be what you’re paying is a little different because you’re paying assets vs money. i think it’s the same as the housing market. If I want a house, then the market dictates what I pay. If I want your house, then I have to overpay. If I want a forward on the market, and there’s four forwards on the market, I can say well, I think the market’s going to say you’re worth $7 million. Because one guy might be worth eight to somebody else, but one of these four guys is going to be $7 million. But if you want that forward, you have to pay $9 million to make sure that you get him because somebody else might offer eight and you’re offering eight and it’s like well, their school district is better, etc. And you have to overpay for a specific guy if you want it.

Yeah. Like you say, location, location, location. That’s the key to the housing market, right? And if you want that location, you’re going to pay a premium for it. It’s no different than a free agent.

To that, when you look back at this past offseason, and I know you weren’t making any promises when you signed Stamkos, Marchessault, Skjei, it’s not like you held a press conference and said we’re going to win the Cup this year. You said this is all fantasy hockey, tried as much as you could. Is there anything you look back on and you say that was my first big swing through free agency as a GM on my own, now I know? Is there something that you took from that experience that you look back on and maybe not regret that you didn’t know, but you know it for the future?

Yes.

And what would that be?

I would like to keep that to myself a little bit. But the experience of going through that process …. I don’t regret any of my signings, I’ll put that out there. I don’t regret any of those. I regret a little bit of the process and sometimes a little bit of patience here and there because certain things …. Timing’s everything as a GM. Just as you say I’m going to get this, after you sign the paperwork, somebody will come over and say hey, I’m thinking about moving this piece, are you interested? And you go I like that piece, and maybe I would’ve rearranged it. You can’t really look back -

Can I tell you my biggest criticism of your free agency?

Yeah, go ahead. I’m a big boy.

Floyd used to tell us you never make a decision until you have to, which was his GM philosophy. That’s always kind of suck with me. And the one thing I look at and felt the process could’ve been a little bit better was the goalie. I felt as if you looked at the backup position … I think you wanted Saros and Lankinen, you offered Lankinen a contract that he turned down because he wanted to play more. And he probably deserved to play more because he’s good and proved that this year. But he went looking for an opportunity that didn’t exist at that time. But you, knowing he was looking for that opportunity, said I’ve got to get a backup goalie so you went out and got Wedgewood whereas if you would’ve waited, you may have Lankinen back or you would’ve figured it out and been fine even if you hadn’t jumped out there for a backup goalie.

Yeah, I don’t think … that’s close. I would love to have Lanks. If someone asks, we offered him a substantial contract. It was only for one year. He said he felt he was going to be a #1 somewhere else. And he went the whole summer without anything. I think he was very fortunate Demko got hurt, or maybe he had inside information, but he’s at the barely league minimum and he’s a better goaltender than that.

That’s one thing in this business. You leave it up to chance and then all of a sudden there’s no seats left. I wanted to make sure that we had a backup goalie. And I knew with the Askarov situation, I wanted a goalie that … that situation could go one way or the other. I wanted to have a backup plan, but I also wanted a backup goalie I knew I could move if things fell in place with Askarov. That’s what I’m saying, sometimes timing doesn’t match up to what you want. And that’s what I’m learning as a GM. You can have all the plans in the world but the timing doesn’t always match your plan. So when you do something, you’re thinking about the immediate, the future and your flexibility on all these situations. That’s what I’m learning and I’m learning it on the fly.

I saw Duchene did a podcast and he talked about how devastated he was that he got bought out by the team. Is that something you think about at all or second guess? Right now goals are a premium that you’re not getting and I think he hits in the lineup a little bit differently than where he was supposed to be placed here.

Yeah, I think where he’s placed right now, it’s a great spot for Matt. I think that that got him the urgency or the reset in his game. I don’t look back on that at all. I did hear that and it was fairly accurate. One or two things that ... I did call him back and say hey, we’re going to go through with the buyout. I didn’t hear that in the podcast but I’m pretty sure-

Did you really think about it though? Because I feel like when you made the decision to buy him out, you had done a lot of thinking about it before that.

Yeah, absolutely.

So when it was like they said they were going to think about it again, did you really think about it or was it like oh yeah, we’ll think about it (but not really think about it).

No, we discussed it as a group. There’s no question. I don’t make those game changing decisions lightly. It wasn’t wink wink. No, we had a long serious talk about it because that was a big decision and I don’t take that lightly.

When it comes to the coach, it’s a weekly conversation here but you guys have been winning some games now. BTW, Preds are 2-1 in the life of Jack Stillman. But more importantly, I am getting the feeling that Andrew Brunette, you keep saying is part of the solution. But if this team ends up with a top pick, it’s hard for me to envision the coach coming back for next year unless you really think that hey, even if the rest of this season is still tough, I still am all in on the couch, believe he’s part of the solution, not the problem. Is the rest of the season going to determine what you do with the coach or is it almost like hey, everybody failed this year, we’re all going to pick it up next year from the start and do that with Andrew Brunette in tow? It’s kind of an unfair question.

It is an unfair question. I don’t think I can answer that, I don’t think anybody can. What I have to do is asses the whole year, where we are. Ive talked to the coaches, teach and preach. Get us better. Get us individually better, collectively better. Get us playing good hockey all the time. And we’ve been in games. We haven’t had that rebuild … we haven’t had lots of those 10-1 beatings that some of the rebuild teams have had in the past. We could have one tonight, I don’t know. But we’ve been in the games. I think we’re #2 in empty net goals. That means we’re pulling our goalie because we’re right there, we’re a goal behind. We haven’t hit offensively. We’ve been stuck on two goals for a good part of the season. Our expected goals is unexplainable. We’re minus -

Audio cuts out here.

… those 3-2 losses become extra points or 3-2 or 4-3 wins. That’s been the difficult part of this year.

I guess what I’m asking is if things don’t miraculously change and this team makes the playoffs and has a 2019 Blues season, does there have to be a fall guy for why this year didn’t work out?

No, I don’t think so. I think you have to assess everything at full value. I look at last year in NJ. They had an off year. Part of it was goaltending. They look like a terrific team this year. They look like they have a chance to win the Cup. I have a great relationship with Fitz. He said everything went wrong last year. There was no fall guy. They just recognized they had an off year and they were okay, a tweak here, adjustment here, a change here, and they did that and they’re having a hell of a season. Really they assessed the whole year and then they tweaked it at the end of the year.

So you guys lost your 8th game in a row last Tuesday. My son was born on Wednesday. I thought you were going to win Saturday but you didn’t. You won Tuesday. I have a feeling, that might be what turned the season around.

Well, congratulations.

Thank you. I am banking on it.

What is the name of the child?

Jackson Reese. I named him after Floyd. We’ll call him Jack. Actually he’s got his Preds gear on today. Very excited about that.

Barry is going to the World Juniors so probably no more Trotz Talks for 2024.

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My wife got me a signed saros jersey . I have no intention of ever selling or parting with it. I am curious to it's value though. I also plan on framing it with some 8x10s and a signed rookie card if I can swing it. Thanks for any information.

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Good trade by Trotz. I suspect he isn't done.

My navy alternate is a size large but I would love to trade down for a medium or small Dm me if interested!

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The waivers news makes this a little awkward, but we got another win and it didn't take almost three weeks this time. Juice got his third shutout of the season and finally got rewarded with the shovel. Del Gaizo had a big fight against Will Cuylle, who is not any easy opponent.

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*The rope first appeared after the November 17th win against Vancouver, but I felt like O’Reilly and Carrier passing the shovel on to the goalies was in a similar vein to the rope

Went to middle and high school with Marc--he was always the nicest guy (even as one of the popular kids). I saw him eating at a diner in our town a few months after he got drafted and I went over to congratulate him. He was brimming with excitement. How has his play been (just saw he's on waivers)?

Heading to a game soon- wanted to know how early to get there to have best chance of getting practice pucks and if there is a place to go after the game to see if I can get like my poster signed (like how some arenas you can wait where the players drive out of the garage and some will sign stuff or take pictures). Thanks in advance!