Nashville Predators Likely Scouting Bruins' Charlie Coyle
The Predators may be honing in on a great target to acquire in a trade this season.
Nashville Predators Likely Scouting Bruins' Charlie CoyleGeneral manager of the Nashville Predators, Barry Trotz, has been hard at work trying to find solutions for the team through a trade. He has already managed to clear more cap space in order for the Predators to add, but now it's down to executing a trade to get better.
The Predators need to do scouting before just making a big decision or move. One of the team's scouts was just at the game between the Boston Bruins and the Columbus Blue Jackets. It is known that the Bruins are exploring the trade market and the Blue Jackets will likely be selling before the deadline, so there was rightfully interest in these two teams.
With the Predators looking for a center and a top-4 defenseman as reported by Elliotte Friedman, who could Nashville have their eye on? I believe Charlie Coyle is the easy answer.
The Bruins signed Elias Lindholm to a long-term deal this past off-season and it has only had a negative impact on Coyle coming off of a career year in Boston. He scored 25 goals and 60 points last season, both career bests, but was in the top-6 and got to take a little advantage of the power play, scoring seven goals and 11 points.
Coyle is back down to being the team's third line center and is not only overpaid for that part, he has four goals and five points in 20 games played while sporting a -10. He is in the second last year of his six-year deal at $5.25 million AAV and he could be the perfect second line center addition for the Predators.
This would have to work out for both teams of course, but there is just no chemistry on Coyle's line and no place in the top-6 for him before the end of his contract. As proven last season, Coyle can be a top-6 center and I think he would be a great complement to Ryan O'Reilly down the middle.
Coyle has experience playing with high-end players like David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand, so he could perform at the top of his game on the second line with Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault in a similar way.
The Bruins have some options to get called up and fill a hole as well with Matthew Poitras, Marc McLaughlin, and Vinni Lettieri all playing well in the minors. Internally, the Bruins have Trent Frederic, Mark Kastelic, Tyler Johnson, John Beecher, and Georgi Merkulov able to play center as well.
The Predators have plenty of prospects or picks that can be offered and I would guarantee Trotz is willing to move some of the abundance Nashville has in order to try and fix what has gone wrong thus far. We will have to wait to see what comes of this, but I like a potential Coyle trade to Nashville a lot.
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