Nashville linked to big trade after dealing Ryan McDonagh to Tampa Bay

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TJ Tucker
May 21, 2024 (5:03 PM)

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After the Nashville Predators traded Ryan McDonagh back to the Tampa Bay Lightning, there's word the team is looking to go all-in on a much bigger trade

With four teams remaining in the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, the business of preparing for the future doesn't stop for the other 28 teams now sitting on the sidelines. The Nashville Predators traded Ryan McDonagh back to the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team he spent five season with and won two Stanley Cups in the process. It seems the trade wasn't about a reunion, though.

According to Michael Gallagher of Nashville Hockey Now, the trade was about dumping salary for Preds GM Barry Trotz in order to have space to go after someone big. Of course, given recent rumours, Mitch Marner's name was brought up.

"After talking to a few people, the sense is the McDonagh trade is a precursor to an aggressive pursuit of a high-end scorer by Barry Trotz

The Mitch Marner stans are going to be insufferable now"

Trade talks have been swirling around Marner ever since the Toronto Maple Leafs fell to the Boston Bruins in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The feeling is one of the "core 4" - Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and William Nylander - has to go in order for Toronto to improve either defensively, or in net. Marner seems to be the target, as he was highly criticized for his performance in the postseason.

That said, Trotz insisted in an interview after the McDonagh trade that it was not about cap space, but about respecting a request from the 34-year-old defenceman himself.

"It was a request a little bit from Ryan. We talked at the end of the year and he's got so many good memories of his time in Tampa, that's probably where him and his wife are going to settle. We just had a conversation about a little bit of life and what that holds in the future.

And so out of respect and the type of person that Ryan is, I talked to [Tampa Bay GM] Julien [Brisebois] and he made a fair deal that would allow us to have Ryan go back to Tampa Bay and do the right thing."

That may be the case, but I'm sure the cap room is appreciated. Trotz made it clear when he took over in Nashville that the idea was to improve the team as quickly as possible.

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