While the Mitch Marner to Nashville chatter may be premature, the Predators are going to be a central figure in both free agency and the trade market this summer.

GM Barry Trotz has a lot of advantages, the Preds made the playoffs, they play in a destination city and a no-tax state, and after the trade of Ryan McDonagh, they have over $26 million in cap space.

As Elliotte Friedman speculated on Wednesday, the Preds being in on free agent blueliner Nikita Zadorov makes sense since Trotz has always liked big, tough defensemen. Nashville will be looking for scoring help and players like Marner could be a fit if he is inclined to waive his no-move clause (but there are many other options out there as well), and they have an enviable situation in goal, no matter if they decide to go with an extension of Juuse Saros, or trading the veteran to make way for Yaroslav Askarov.

Be prepared for a lot of Music City talk…..

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