The Predators swapped physical defensemen in a trade with Vegas Sunday, acquiring Nicolas Hague and a conditional draft pick from the Golden Knights in exchange for defenseman Jeremy Lauzon and forward Colton Sissons.

Hague, who had been a pending restricted free agent, also signed a four-year, $22 million contract with Nashville.

The Predators will receive Vegas’ third-round pick in 2027, but if the Golden Knights win two playoff rounds in 2026, that pick becomes a 2027 second-round selection.

Nashville will retain half of Sissons’ 2025-26 salary — approximately $1.43 million — as part of the deal.

The 6-6, 245-pound Hague, a 2017 second-round pick by Vegas, played six NHL seasons there, helping the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup in 2023 with now-Nashville teammate Jonathan Marchessault.

A third-pairing blueliner with the Golden Knights, Hague brings a physical presence, as he totaled 133 blocked shots and 177 hits in 81 games in 2022-23, then posted 111 blocked shots and 153 hits in 73 contests in 2023-24. In 68 games last season, Hague blocked 74 shots and collected 82 hits.

Hague has decent mobility for his size and can move the puck, but don’t expect much offense from him. He’s never totaled more than 17 points in any of his six seasons.

“Shortly after supplying our prospect pipeline with several talented players at this weekend’s NHL Draft, we feel we’ve made our team better and younger with this trade,” Preds general manager Barry Trotz said in a release. “Nicolas’ profile as a defenseman is one that teams around the NHL covet — big and physical with strong skating ability. By signing him for four years, he will play an integral role in shaping our blueline not only now, but in the future.

At 26 years old, Hague is two years younger than the 28-year-old Lauzon, who has a similar style of game. Lauzon set an NHL record with 386 hits in 2023-24, which marked his third season of more than 200 hits. He also posted a career-best 111 blocked shots in 2023-24.

But injuries limited Lauzon to 28 games last season, and he has only once in seven years played as many as 70 games in a season.

Lauzon was scheduled to make $2 million in the final year of his contract in 2025-26, while Sissons will make $2.86 million in the final year of his deal — half from Vegas and half from Nashville.

The 31-year-old Sissons had spent all 11 of his seasons with the Predators, after getting drafted by Nashville in the second round of the 2012 draft. Among active players, Sissons had the third-longest tenure on the Predators, trailing only Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg.

Sissons played 690 regular-season games for the Predators, the seventh-most in franchise history, producing 221 points (95 goals, 126 assists).

A well-respected veteran, Sissons proved a versatile piece of the Nashville lineup, as he played on both top-six and bottom-six lines over the years.

He’ll long be remembered by Nashville fans for the hat trick he notched against Anaheim in Game 6 of the 2017 Western Conference Finals, which sent the Predators to their first Stanley Cup Final.

“I want to thank both Colton and Jeremy for their contributions to our organization,” Trotz said. “I’m proud of what Colton has been able to accomplish in our league since we drafted him back in 2012, and we were fortunate to see Jeremy further develop here in Nashville. We wish them all the best in Vegas.”

Sissons posted back-to-back seasons of double-figure goals recently, totaling 30 points (12 goals, 18 assists) in 2022-23 and 35 points (15 goals, 20 assists) in 2023-24.

But like most of his teammates, Sissons’ production dropped noticeably last season, as he managed 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists) in 72 games. The Predators hoped he might be a solution as a second-line center, but it never panned out.

His departure will hurt a penalty-killing unit that finished seventh in the NHL last season (81.5 percent), and Sissons was also second on the team in face-off percentage at 54.8 percent, trailing only Ryan O’Reilly (55.8).

But his departure will open a roster spot for a younger player, perhaps even cracking the door for first-round pick Brady Martin, though it would still seem more likely that the 18-year-old Martin will return to junior hockey for one more season.