Tyson Barrie has been a healthy scratch for the Nashville Predators for the last two games after word broke that he has been given permission to talk to other teams. What does this mean for the Predators' blue line going forward?
On December 2, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reported that the Nashville Predators had granted defenseman Tyson Barrie permission to talk to other teams about a potential trade.
Barrie has been a healthy scratch in Nashville's two games since the news broke which has been an interesting development as it happened around the same time that fellow defenseman Alexandre Carrier left the Minnesota Wild game with an upper body injury and is listed as week-to-week.
Yesterday on the 32 Thoughts Podcast, Friedman also speculated that Carrier and Dante Fabbro could also be names mentioned in trade discussions for the Nashville Predators. With Carrier's injury, any discussions around moving him are temporarily tabled while Dante Fabbro is the perennial name mentioned when it comes to trade moves for the Predators.
The move that appears most imminent is Barrie, although there is no official indication which team may be most interested in making a deal with Barry Trotz. While Barrie likely did not figure in to Nashville's long term plans even when he was brought in as a part of the Mattias Ekholm trade with the Edmonton Oilers, it does seem like the timeline for a move is now closer than the NHL trade deadline.