A new era is officially beginning in Nashville. On Tuesday, it was announced that Colorado Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland would be selected to assume such a role with the Nashville Predators, replacing outgoing GM Barry Trotz.
At the same time, MacFarland will take on the role of President of Hockey Operations, while Joe Sakic will take on MacFarland's former position with the Colorado Avalanche after vacating it four years ago in a front office shake-up.
The potential direction of interest from Nashville's new general manager might be unknown, but a roster revamp is very possible. Among the team's many veterans, forward Steven Stamkos is entering the penultimate season of his deal in Music City.
Stamkos and others could easily be wild card trade targets for the Sabres this offseason, especially if they can't secure Alex Tuch to a long-term deal. One could make a case for any Predators player with tenure, but here are the three I think would be the best suited in Buffalo's win-now environment.
With Steven Stamkos comes veteran scoring and Stanley Cup-winning experience
If Buffalo were to look to acquire Stamkos, they would be getting a veteran forward who knows how to win the Stanley Cup, something that is arguably seen as the next step for this Sabres team. And even at the age of 36, Stamkos brings offense in both regular-season and playoff situations. He's scored at least 40 goals in three of the last five seasons, with one of them (2021-22) also seeing him record over 100 points. While just five of his 11 postseason appearances have seen him record double-digit point totals, a good handful of the remaining six playoff tournaments either saw him injured to some capacity or were one-round performances (looking at you, Columbus).
Stamkos would easily fill a top-six role for the Sabres and would arguably be an upgrade over Tuch even at his age and with just under six years separating him from a core muscle injury that he suffered in 2020. Put him on a line with Tage Thompson and someone like Zach Benson and it's lights out.
But what's separating Buffalo from considering such a move is the cost. We're not just talking about acquiring a close-to-retirement version of Stamkos, we're talking about acquiring the playing himself.
That is going to cost a pretty penny. For starters, the Sabres would have to give up a first round pick in one of the next three drafts alongside two or three other early-to-mid round picks.
But that's just to keep Nashville on the phone. The Sabres would also need to package a forward or two alongside those picks. Jordan Greenway could be an option to make the money work in this scenario, but the Sabres could package any of their under-contract depth forwards up in a potential deal. That said, the buck stops at Konsta Helenius and Jack Quinn; no deal for Stamkos can see those two players sent to Nashville.
It's possible to argue that Buffalo could ask for Nashville to retain some salary, but this doesn't have to be a dealbreaker. Stamkos' cap hit is $8 million (via PuckPedia), but trading Greenway means the Sabres lose just $4 million worth of cap space. And if Tuch doesn't come back, the Sabres will save money either way, especially with Tuch's next contract projected to potentially top $10 million.
Jonathan Marchessault could be a cheaper alternative to Stamkos
With Jonathan Marchessault comes another resume filled with postseason experience. Like Stamkos, Marchessault's first taste of postseason action came with Tampa Bay during the 2015 and 2016 playoffs, the former of which saw the Lightning make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. That said, Marchessault only played a combined seven games over the course of those two postseason tournaments.
With the Vegas Golden Knights, Marchessault made the playoffs in all but one of the seven seasons he played with them. When the Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup in 2023, Marchessault recorded 25 points (13 goals and 12 assists) in what ended up being a 22 game postseason run that saw Vegas go 16-6.
While his regular-season numbers have hovered relatively close to the point-per-game pace during his time in Vegas, they plummeted while he was in Nashville. Most recently, Marchessault recorded 31 points in 62 games during the 2025-26 campaign, a far cry from the 69 points he recorded during the 2023-24 campaign.
Even then, acquiring Marchessault would help Buffalo add Stanley Cup-winning experience to their roster. While the cost might still be hefty, his drop in production could suggest a potential leniency on Nashville's side.
Compared to the potential return for a Stamkos trade, acquiring Marchessault and his $5.5 million cap hit could only require an early-round pick, a forward like Greenway or even Jason Zucker — who is on a $4.75 million dollar contract that expires next summer — to balance the books, and maybe a prospect if Nashville desires.
Ryan O'Reilly could help Buffalo fix a glaringly obvious issue
In Buffalo's second-round series against the Montreal Canadiens, face-offs were a big issue.
While the Habs only bested the Sabres 52.7%-47.3% by the time the series ended, there were games where the Habs completely outclassed the Sabres in the face-off circle, including those that the Sabres won.
Acquiring O'Reilly via trade would not only mean that Buffalo gains one of the NHL's top face-off winners — he's only won fewer than 50% of his face-offs once in his career, and that came in his rookie season — but it would also mean a reunion six years and a Stanley Cup in the making. During his final year in Buffalo, O'Reilly won 60% of his face-offs while recording 61 points in 81 games. The following year, which saw him win the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues, he won almost 57% of his face-offs while recording a career-high in points and assists; he would go on to match the assist total set another two times.
It is worth noting that he recorded a face-off win percentage of 62% during the 13 regular season games that he played with the Toronto Maple Leafs, though he started the campaign with a 54.1% mark.
Of the three forwards potentially up for grabs, O'Reilly would be the cheapest to acquire while also having the shortest term. His contract, which is worth $4.5 million annually, does not have a no-move clause attached (Stamkos and Marchessault have no-move clauses, while the former has a 15-team no trade list attached to the final year of his contract) and he would become a free agent at the end of the 2026-27 season.
In terms of a potential return, the Predators would likely ask for a center as the minimum. A money-saving/shock trade could see the two teams swap centers, with Nashville acquiring center Josh Norris and his $7.95 million per year contract and Buffalo acquiring O'Reilly. That said, this deal would more than likely require the Sabres to retain up to 50% of his salary and to potentially throw in an early-round draft pick to sweeten the deal.
While Norris can win face-offs and has had some impressive face-off numbers (61.2% in 2019-20 and 57.9% in 2022-23), injuries and reassignments meant that the sample sizes on both occasions were not large enough to warrant anything more than a blip on the radar. And even then, O'Reilly's durability and consistency easily makes him an upgrade on Norris.
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