The Nashville Predators’ move to trade defenseman Spencer Stastney to the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 12 caught many by surprise.
But according to general manager Barry Trotz, it was just a numbers game.
“We feel we are pretty deep on defense organizationally,” Trotz told reporters at Centennial Sportsplex. “That sort of triggered the move.”
Though the Predators only have six active defensemen after the trade, they will soon get Justin Barron back from injury. That gives them seven healthy defensemen, plenty for an active roster.
By moving Stastney, Trotz explained they’ll now have more roster flexibility at forward and defense.
“It frees us to get to some of our young forwards,” he said. “We’ve been carrying eight (defensemen), it always seems like you can never have enough (defensemen). But we felt we were getting blocked sometimes to get to some of our young forwards. We’ve got Justin (Barron) coming back. Between him coming back and what we have in the system right now, we’re still in pretty good shape.”
In wins over the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues, the Predators skated with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. This trade and Trotz’s explanation suggest the Predators want to add a young forward from Milwaukee to move back to a traditional 12-forward, six-defenseman lineup.
The Predators also add some draft capital in the deal, acquiring a 2027 third-round pick from the Oilers. They now have 11 picks in the 2027 NHL Draft, including four in the third round.
While Trotz didn’t specify which side initiated talks on Stastney, the Oilers also acquired goaltender Tristan Jarry from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 12.
“Edmonton was looking around,” Trotz said. “Obviously they had another deal in the works, so they were looking for a specific type of player. And that was (Spencer Stastney). I know (Oilers general manager Stan Bowman) knows (Stastney) from his time when he was in Chicago.”
Stastney, a Woodbridge, Illinois, native, now heads to Edmonton where he should play a similar role for the Oilers – an excellent skating, bottom pairing defenseman with some good penalty killing skills.
Next up, Nashville (12-14-4, 28 points) heads on the road to play the Colorado Avalanche on Dec. 13 (7 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network).
Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.