Barry Trotz’s legacy in Nashville is secure.
No amount of second-guessing deadline decisions, buyouts, or prospect trades should overwrite what Nashville Predators hockey looks like without Trotz. He helped build the franchise literally from scratch. He helped turn an expansion team into a legitimate hockey market. He coached more games behind the Predators’ bench than anyone ever will again, and he played a massive role in creating what “Smashville” even means.
That part of the story is not up for debate. But what is up for debate — and what the Predators absolutely must get right — is what comes next.
Because as respectful, transparent, and emotional as Trotz’s retirement announcement was, it also represents something far bigger than one man stepping aside. It’s a rare inflection point for an organization that has spent decades doing one thing above all else:
Hiring itself.
Predators’ biggest enemy has always been familiarity
The Predators are one of the NHL’s most internally loyal organizations. That loyalty has value. It also has a cost.
For nearly 30 years, hockey decisions in Nashville flowed through one pipeline — the one built by David Poile. Different titles, different eras, same internal ecosystem. Same voices. Same philosophies. Same risk tolerance.
So when Trotz took over as GM, it wasn’t a radical departure. It was a continuation — just with a different résumé at the top. That’s why this moment matters. If the Predators respond to Trotz’s retirement by promoting one of the three current assistant general managers — Brian Poile, Scott Nichol or Jeff Kealty — they are not choosing evolution. They are choosing comfort.
And comfort has never brought a Stanley Cup to Nashville.
Going “outside the family” isn’t disrespect — It’s growth
This isn’t an indictment of the AGMs. They’re experienced. They’re capable. They know the building. That’s the problem.
The Predators don’t need someone who already agrees with how things have always been done. They need someone who challenges it. Someone who comes in without emotional attachment to past decisions, past contracts, past hierarchies, or past power structures.
They need new ideas. New models. New blind spots exposed.
The league has changed. Roster construction has changed. Asset management has changed. The teams winning now are aggressive, creative, analytically driven, and unafraid to disrupt their own norms. Nashville has too often been cautious, reactive, and institutionally slow.
If this search doesn’t include candidates with zero prior ties to the Predators — people who have no reason to preserve “the way we’ve always done things” — then this entire process will feel cosmetic, not transformative.
If the goal is winning, change can’t stop at the GM
Here’s the uncomfortable part that can’t be danced around.
If the Predators are truly serious about becoming an organization singularly focused on winning hockey games — not just selling out concerts, branding the arena, or marketing the game-day experience — then the scope of change has to extend beyond hockey ops.
That means eventually moving on from CEO Sean Henry and president Michelle Kennedy.
They’ve overseen tremendous business success. Bridgestone Arena is a jewel. Smashville is a brand. But the Predators are not a lifestyle company. They are a professional sports franchise. And too often, the balance has tilted toward entertainment optics over competitive urgency.
That doesn’t mean Henry or Kennedy failed. It means the organization’s priorities need recalibrating — toward banners, not amenities.
Trotz should be remembered for what he built, not what comes after
Some fans are angry that Trotz still controls the upcoming trade deadline. Some are fixated on Matt Duchene, Yaroslav Askarov, Dante Fabbro, Tommy Novak, Alexandre Carrier — the ledger of moves they didn’t like. That’s shortsighted.
Trotz is not the problem Nashville needs to solve right now. He’s the bridge. The real question is whether ownership — led by Bill Haslam, alongside voices like Nick Saban and Chris Cigarran — has the appetite to finally disrupt its own comfort.
Replacing Trotz with another Predators lifer would be the safest possible move. And the safest move is usually the wrong one.
If Nashville truly wants to take the next step — not just stay relevant, not just stay profitable, but actually win a Stanley Cup — this is the moment to stop hiring the past and start investing in the future.
Trotz gave this organization its identity. Now, it’s time for someone new to redefine its ceiling.
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