Predators general manager Barry Trotz said Tuesday there’s no substance to speculation the team is looking to trade veteran forward Jonathan Marchessault.

Appearing at a pre-draft media availability, Trotz said he’d just minutes earlier spoken to Marchessault’s agent, Pat Brisson, making sure all was good between the team and player.

“There’s no truth to any of that [trade speculation],” Trotz said. “If [Marchessault] is going to look for something, he [would be] calling his agent and he [would be] calling me.

“So there’s nothing to that. I was just checking in with [Brisson] because people are going, `What’s happening [with Marchessault]?’ There’s nothing happening. I didn’t know if anything was happening, so I just double checked with him that maybe I missed something. I didn’t miss anything.”

The 34-year-old Marchessault was a major free-agent addition for the Preds last summer, signing a five-year, $27.5 million deal. The 2023 Conn Smythe Award winner had scored at least 25 goals in six of his previous eight seasons.

But along with the rest of the Predators, Marchessault slumped last season, posting 56 points (21 goals, 35 assists) in 78 games, his lowest points and goal totals since 2020-21.

He had dealt with the unexpected death of his mother just before the start of the season as well.

“I think it was a difficult year for him,” Trotz said. “He had some death in the family. It busted up training camp for him. We got off to a bad start and all that. He [still] produced pretty well. Even though a lot of people will say he didn’t have a really top year for him, he still produced at a pretty high rate, so I think he’s too competitive not to have a good year [in 2025-26].”

Days after the season ended, Marchessault criticized the offensive system of head coach Andrew Brunette.

“Clearly it didn’t work,” Marchessault said at the time. “Obviously there is going to be some adjustments to do. I’m a guy that has a lot of opinions and I don’t think I’m going to run them out right now, but there’s definitely adjustments.”

Those developments had led to the speculation that Marchessault, after just one season, might be on the trading block.

But Trotz quashed those rumors, saying he wants to give the Predators’ veteran core — which includes Marchessault, Steven Stamkos, Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly, Roman Josi and Brady Skjei — the opportunity to rebound from last season’s 30-44-8 record, which represented the fifth-fewest full-season win total in franchise history.

“I want to see what this group can do,” Trotz said. “I’m hoping [Josi] has a really good bounceback season for us … and [Stamkos] and Marchessault and Skjei, feeling that this is their team now. That part of our team should be much better.”