- New Predators GM Chris MacFarland says he wants more puck skill on the back end
- He made seven player additions and two front office hires in his first two months
- Read below for what MacFarland said in Windsor about his first scouting trip with Nashville
Chris MacFarland is not finished shopping.
The new Nashville Predators president of hockey operations and general manager was asked Wednesday about where his roster still needs work, and he pointed straight at his defense group, per Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com.
“We’d like to find a way to add a little bit of puck skill to the back end if we could,” MacFarland said. “Not easy to do. But if there’s just incremental ways that we can get better, no matter whether it’s up front or back end or wherever, we’re going to look to do that.”
MacFarland said he plans to keep talking with other general managers through the summer while his staff preps for the season.
He has already been busy. Nashville hired him away from Colorado on June 2, dropping him into the NHL Combine, the draft and free agency inside his first month on the job.
“It was a whirlwind, but that’s the hockey business, right?” he said.
His haul from that stretch: forwards Mavrik Bourque, Ross Colton, Jack Drury, Adam Edstrom, Nils Hoglander and Alex Kerfoot, plus defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin. MacFarland also brought in Rob Blake as executive vice president of hockey operations and Jamie Langenbrunner as a special assistant, and he added Matt Calvert to his development staff.
Bourque was the big one. Nashville acquired the 24-year-old from Dallas on July 1 and signed him to a six-year, $33 million deal three days later. He put up 41 points in 82 games last season.
Asked whether Bourque can handle first-line center duty, MacFarland kept the bar reasonable.
“He was a 20-goal guy last year. If he can just come in and replicate that and be part of that younger core, that would excite us, whether that’s second-line center or middle-six winger or whatever,” MacFarland said. “He’s going to get every opportunity to excel in the middle of the ice, that’s for sure.”
Wednesday was MacFarland’s first scouting trip in a Predators hoodie. He turned up at WFCU Centre in Windsor for the World Junior Summer Showcase, where Nashville has seven prospects skating, including 2026 10th overall pick Wyatt Cullen.
Cullen has given his new GM plenty to like already, scoring in Team USA’s tournament-opening 6-1 win over Sweden on Sunday.
All that churn traces to how last season went sideways early. Nashville opened 6-12-4, went 32-22-6 the rest of the way, and still missed the playoffs for a second straight year, finishing sixth in the Central and four points behind the Kings for the second wild card.
MacFarland heard about that October from the players themselves.
“I know one of the things in talking with our leadership group at the end of the year when I first got there was, they felt their start last year hurt them,” MacFarland said.
He is bringing staff in for meetings next week, earlier than a first week of August normally calls for, to sort out processes ahead of his first camp with head coach Andrew Brunette.
