Nashville Predators General Manager Barry Trotz announced today he will transition out of his current role, remaining with the organization as an advisor while a successor is identified. Trotz, who initially took the GM position in February 2023 after a distinguished career as one of the NHL’s most successful coaches, cited a desire to prioritize family commitments as a key factor in his decision[[1]. The team has stated it hopes to name a replacement before the 2026 NHL Draft[[1].
Nashville Predators General Manager Barry Trotz announced today he will be stepping down from his post after three seasons at the helm, though he will remain with the organization as an advisor until a replacement is found.
Trotz, 63, initially took on the GM role on February 27, 2023, officially succeeding David Poile on July 1. The Predators currently sit fifth in the Central Division with a 25-23-6 record, four points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second Western Conference Wild Card spot as they prepare to face the St. Louis Blues on Monday at 8 p.m. ET (FDSNMW, FDSNSO). This crucial matchup comes as teams across the league battle for playoff positioning.
“I’ve been in pro sports in some shape or form probably for 40 years now, and there comes a time when you realize that a lot of the stuff you’ve done and you’ve been immersed, you can’t be sometimes present in both places,” Trotz explained. “You can’t be present in your job and you can’t be present at home. I just felt there’s an end date.”
The long-time coach and executive emphasized the importance of family. “There’s a responsibility that I feel to my family. I think you see your kids grow up, I’m very proud of my kids. Now they’re getting married, [I’ve] got grandkids now. You’re missing a lot of the dates. In this business, our kids very seldom have their birthdays on their birthdays; seldom am I present even at their birthdays sometimes. Those things that we always had to change, we did all of that. Now you’ve got grandkids, you’ve got all that, it becomes a little bit more real. A little bit of mortality, if you will … I don’t know if I’m going to be here tomorrow, and so I want to have some of those things with my family.”
Predators owner and majority chairman Bill Haslam stated the team hopes to have a new GM in place before the 2026 NHL Draft, scheduled for June 26-27. “That’s our hope,” Haslam said. “But the luxury of doing what we’re doing is we have a road to play this out the way we want instead of announcing this in April of (20)27 and thinking, ‘Oh, we’ve got to get a [general manager] here before June of (20)27. This allows us to do it the right way. We hope to have somebody by the draft of this year, but we’re not limited by that.”
Trotz led the Predators to a playoff berth in his first season as GM in 2023-24 (47-30-5), but the team fell to the Vancouver Canucks in six games in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. Following that season, Nashville made significant additions in free agency, signing Steven Stamkos to a four-year, $8 million average annual value contract and Jonathan Marchessault to a five-year, $5.5 million AAV deal. However, the Predators struggled in 2024-25, finishing with a 30-44-8 record – 30th in the NHL.
Despite a challenging 6-12-4 start to the current season, Trotz publicly backed head coach Andrew Brunette in November, placing the onus for improvement on the players. At the time, Nashville was last in the league in goals per game (2.32) and 30th in goals against (3.68). The Predators have since gone 19-11-2, improving to 25th in goals per game (2.83) and 27th in goals against (3.39).
“I need more [expletive] from them,” Trotz said, expressing his frustration with offensive output. “I need more. … I’m watching the game systematically. I know who makes mistakes. When the puck is on someone’s stick and they pass it right to [the other team], that’s not [Brunette’s] fault.”
Stamkos has 39 points (25 goals, 14 assists) and is minus-16 in 54 games this season, while Marchessault has 14 points (nine goals, five assists) and is minus-19 in 35 games.
Predators captain Roman Josi expressed surprise at the announcement. “Obviously, very surprised; I think everyone was,” Josi said. “I don’t think anybody saw it coming from the team. Yeah, very surprised.”
Josi emphasized the team’s focus remains on the playoff push. “… Obviously he’s still here and he’s still the GM. For us, we’ve got a game tonight, so we’re focused on the game tonight. We’re in a playoff hunt and there’s a lot of important games coming up. For the team, nothing really changes. I think our job is to make the playoffs and fight for a playoff spot. The rest is kind of not up to us, so it doesn’t change much for the team.”
Trotz holds a significant place in Predators history, having been the franchise’s first head coach, hired on August 6, 1997. He coached the team from its inaugural season in 1998-99 through 2013-14, compiling a record of 557-479-60 in 1,196 games. He led the Predators to seven playoff appearances, reaching the second round twice.
He later guided the Washington Capitals to a Stanley Cup championship in 2018 after coaching them from 2014-15 to 2017-18. He also coached the New York Islanders from 2018-19 to 2021-22, leading them to consecutive semifinal appearances in 2020 and 2021.
Trotz ranks fifth all-time in NHL coaching wins with 914.
“I want to talk about a couple rumors out there,” Trotz clarified. “I am healthy; this is not a health decision. I’m not getting back into coaching; this is not a coaching decision. Those are some of the rumors that are out there. I just want to dispel those.”
“When I took this job, I said I didn’t want to do it to a point where I couldn’t do the rest of the stuff, have time for the rest of the stuff. In the back of my mind when I took the job, I was probably being fair and I was upfront with everybody that we’ll see where this goes. I wanted, out of respect to the organization and [ownership] and everybody, we’re trying to build something. We’re collecting draft choices, we’re developing people and all that.
“If I wanted to be here until we win the Stanley Cup, I don’t know how long that would be. So, I wanted to give them a defined date where it was clear on both sides.”
NHL.com independent correspondent Robby Stanley contributed to this report
