Edmonton Oilers among teams circling in on Nashville Predators’ Mattias Ekholm

On today’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed what a return for Mattias Ekholm could look like as the Nashville Predators seem to be in seller mode.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s shift to the Nashville Predators and we talked about what they did over the weekend but I want to ask you what they could do in the next five days here. With Nino Niederretier and Tanner Jeannot gone, what’s next in Nashville?

Frank Seravalli: Well I’m going to give you three names to keep an eye on and one that has rocketed to the top of the list and I first reported on his availability back in January well before the Predators decided to officially sell and that’s Mattias Ekholm who you see at No. 5 on the Trade Targets board. 

I’m told that the Edmonton Oilers are just one of a few teams that have checked in with Nashville in recent days particularly once the selling had begun. That’s the big question mark with Ekholm moving forward, what does that return look like? You’ve seen the season he’s had, he’s in the first year of a four-year deal that pays him $6.25 million. So, three more years at six and some change, that’s pretty expensive for a guy who’s bigger and plays a rough style of game for a long time now; there’s a lot of miles on that body and what does that return look like given you know the contract that exists after the fact? 

I still think that they’re in the first-round pick territory but I’d compare it to other guys on the market like Chychrun who is No.1 on the board but the ask remains sky high so teams look at Ekholm and say this is a nice check down option fit for our team as we are trying to improve for the playoffs. A player who is battle tested and ready for the playoffs, Ekholm is one to watch. 

Mikael Granlund is another player to watch, he’s in our top 10 and he’s got a couple more season remaining at $5 million and he’s on pace for 52 points this year. He’s someone that has played and brings so many different elements to his game, penalty kill, and powerplay, he can do just about everything. That contract is pretty reasonable to move for the Preds. The other guy to watch for is Dante Fabbro, who is much lower on our Trade Targets list.