- Nashville hired former NHL forward Matt Calvert as its forward development coach on Friday
- Calvert put up 203 points in 566 NHL games with Columbus and Colorado before retiring in 2021
- Read below for Calvert’s new role and his history with Preds GM Chris MacFarland
Chris MacFarland went back to a name he already knew.
The Predators hired former NHL forward Matt Calvert as their forward development coach on Friday, the latest addition to a hockey operations staff MacFarland has been reshaping since taking over as president of hockey operations and general manager on June 2.
Here’s the announcement from the team:
Calvert, 36, will work under Scott Nichol, Nashville’s assistant GM and director of player development. The role covers evaluating the forwards the Predators draft and sign, then staying with those prospects through conditioning, off-ice workouts and practice habits. He lands on a development group that already includes Pekka Rinne and Rob Scuderi.
MacFarland and Calvert have shared a building before. MacFarland spent 16 years in the Blue Jackets organization, where Calvert broke in as a fifth-round pick in 2010-11. MacFarland left for Colorado in 2015 to work as Joe Sakic’s assistant GM, and Calvert turned up three years later, signing a three-year, $8.4 million deal with the Avalanche in free agency.
As a player he was never a scorer, and he didn’t need to be. Calvert finished with 203 points on 95 goals and 108 assists across 566 games, eight seasons in Columbus and three in Colorado, after the Blue Jackets took him 127th overall in 2008.
Injuries ended it early. Calvert was limited to 18 games in his final season and retired in July 2021 at 31.
He co-founded CAL Sports Management after hanging up his skates, running recruitment and development there before Nashville called.
Nashville has missed the playoffs two years running and came up four points short of the last Western wild-card spot in 2025-26. MacFarland’s offseason answer has mostly been to rebuild the staff around him, from Vukie Mpofu in the assistant GM chair to Calvert now.
Opening night against Minnesota is Oct. 1.
