It was the second period the Nashville Predators against the Calgary Flames when news broke of a trade. The Predators traded Max Görtz to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Andrew O’Brien. While this news raised a few eyebrows because of the teams involved in making the trade this was very much an AHL trade. The initial question one would ask is the simple one: why?

The short and sweet answer to this trade coming to be is the injury status of defenseman Adam Pardy. During Wednesday night’s game the veteran was trekking back in his own half when Patrick Brown of the Charlotte Checkers jammed his stick into the braking skate of Pardy as the two were racing towards the end wall. Pardy went down hard into the boards head and left side of the body first in a violent collision. Brown received a tripping minor on the play while Pardy left the ice after getting looked on and helped off the ice by head athletic trainer Doug Agnew. He would not return for the rest of the game.

It appears that the extent of the injury to Pardy was bad enough to force a trade within twenty-four hours of him going down. He is out indefinitely and joins the likes of Cody Bass (lower-body) and Miikka Salomäki (lower-body) in that respect.

Where losing Pardy hurts the most is up for debate. He was a tremendous veteran style defenseman that was doing great work with the Milwaukee Admirals since he was acquired in an AHL trade earlier in the season from the Springfield Falcons. He brought great depth to the team and filled a role that the team quickly lost when Matt Irwin made his claim to being with the Predators for the rest of the season. The other area where losing Pardy hurts next is that his veteran résumé also meant being a great depth option for the Predators to recall in moments of need – something that seemingly has happened far too often already this season. Pardy has been tasked to play four games this season with the Predators. Not too shabby for a guy that lost out on an NHL contract with the Florida Panthers in their pre-season camp, accepted an AHL deal, was traded to a new AHL team, and worked to earn the NHL contract from the Predators.

With all of that in mind the next question to me is the one that makes yesterday’s trade hard to understand. Did the Predators actually find a suitable replacement for Pardy with O’Brien? And the answer to that is an emphatic and capitalized NO.

O’Brien is 24-years old and was drafted by the Ducks in the fourth round of the 2012 NHL Draft. He turned pro in the 2013-14 season where he split time between the Norfolk Admirals (AHL) and Utah Grizzlies (ECHL). That first pro season he saw the ice only 28 times and was in the ECHL for 24 games of that season. His last two seasons have seen him stay on the ice to a much higher degree and with only a single ECHL appearance: 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) in 121 games with 174 penalty minutes and a plus/minus rating of -13. This season he has played 10 games from the San Diego Gulls 32 games played and has 2 assists, 4 penalty minutes, and a plus/minus rating of -2. He has never played in the NHL.

What I see here then is that the Predators traded away a struggling prospect in Görtz for a struggling prospect in O’Brien. The difference is that at least Görtz in one previous pro season displayed excellent skill and is a forward capable of wracking up lots of points – he was the Admirals second leading scorer in his North American debut season a year ago with 47 points (18 goals, 29 assists) in 72 games. O’Brien has yet to do much of anything and, between his first pro season and current season, is struggling to even make the ice.

If the Predators wanted to replace Pardy and were willing to trade a prospect away within their own conference there were better options available to them to fill a veteran defensive void: Jamie McBain and Zbynek Michalek (Arizona/Tucson), Mark Fraser (Edmonton/Bakersfield), Chris Butler (St. Louis/Chicago), Maxime Fortunus and Mike Weber (Minnesota/Iowa), Brian Strait (Winnipeg/Manitoba), Vincent LoVerde and Zach Trotman (Los Angeles/Ontario), Cameron Schilling (Chicago/Rockford), Andrew Bodnarchuk (Dallas/Texas), and -even on the very team that they traded with- Nate Guenin and Jeff Schultz (Anaheim/San Diego).

Those were all equivalent or like-minded players that could fill into Pardy’s NHL/AHL veteran depth role and the opted to trade a prospect that showed great promise a year ago for none of those names and a player that features no veteran-like traits that could serve the Predators -and possibly even the Admirals- well for the length of the season. For the Admirals and O’Brien’s skate – I really hope I am massively wrong and the Predators get away with a solid talent heist. I just don’t see how it fits the criteria of what they were looking to fill for both the Predators and Admirals. The Admirals right now have someone who is doing what O’Brien has doing in his career and they picked him up on a PTO Contract from the Manchester Monarchs, Rick Pinkston. Is that equal value to Görtz’s potential or Pardy’s capacity to work between the NHL/AHL? No.

This feels like a knee jerk reaction made in the space of a day to fix a problem with something that could quickly become a new problem. Görtz’s struggles this season should not have made him fodder for such a woeful return. Everything from this point forward is dependent really on O’Brien being superior to the likes of a Pinkston or Jonathan Diaby. It should also get a serious nudge-nudge for Jimmy Oligny to get the NHL contract that the Predators should have given him after last season.

Ideally, P.K. Subban and Roman Josi get back for the Predators soon enough for Alex Carrier to make a return to the Admirals. Even more ideally the injury bug plaguing the Predators’ 2016-17 season goes away and never comes back. Petter Granberg would have been nice depth awaiting a chance to go back up after a good AHL run but even that isn’t attainable because in the moment he gets to the Admirals he gets recalled and hurt.

I do not remember the depth ever being so tested in my time following the Admirals these past five seasons. There are so many question marks that hang over the Predators and therefore their minor league affiliates. The biggest of which, if this injury bug continues, is what happens at the NHL Trade Deadline?

Trades are already happening now. They might feel minor on the Nashville scale but the repercussions in Milwaukee have been painful. Are bits and pieces going to be sold off to salvage a season or will everyone stand pat if returning healthy bodies act as newly acquired pieces? The past few weeks from an Admirals perspective has felt a lot like having a dark cloud hovering over the entire group. That cloud could be growing in the weeks to come.

What is your reaction to Max Görtz for Andrew O’Brien? Did the Nashville Predators get equal value for Görtz? Did the Predators really fill the void left from an injured Adam Pardy? Will this chain of moves for the Predators that are impacting the Admirals ratchet up come the NHL Trade Deadline? 

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It caused a slight double-take on my part when the Nashville Predators reassigned Kevin Fiala to the Milwaukee Admirals on Tuesday morning. He had been performing really well at the NHL level this season and is beginning to show flashes of his capabilities on the grand stage. That there is the problem though. They’re only flashes and you hope for consistency. That’s when it is time for the AHL to become involved to let prospects going through the motions, slight as they might be, a chance to play maximum minutes and get a full head of steam en route to the NHL spotlight once again.

Fiala endured a day of travel that saw him journey from Vancouver to Minneapolis to Charlotte when he was reassigned from the Predators to the Admirals. He made it in time to play Tuesday night and he didn’t look like someone who had woke up at 4 AM and traveled for ten hours when he was on the ice. He was sensational. He followed that up with a repeated quality effort that was sealed with one of the prettiest worked solo goals of the AHL season to secure the win for the Admirals in overtime.

He was with the Admirals for barely two days, played two games, and looked like someone that was head and shoulders above so many outstanding players who were on the ice. He was skating with pace, he was active off the puck and being attentive to defensive assignments, and was buzzing around and creating offensively at a time when the Admirals desperately needed an igniter in that department.

Why is Fiala with the Admirals right now? Why is Fiala not doing what he just did in Charlotte against NHL opposition on a shift-by-shift basis? And is the Fiala who has had those flashes in the NHL just who he is always going to be?

Those seem to be questions on tons of peoples minds as comments floated on in after he scored last night’s game-winning goal in overtime. “We lost a one goal game to the Canucks Tuesday night and here is Fiala scoring a game-winning goal in overtime when we need him.” Those sorts of commentary chirps were raining in.

Listen folks. I understand the frustrations. I understand the magnitude of a first round selection’s potential to perform. But, Fiala’s current spot that he finds himself in – whether temporary or longer, I think that the expectations weighted on him have been blown way out of proportion. It’s time to stop thinking about what Kevin Fiala isn’t and start appreciating Kevin Fiala for who he is.

Fiala is still 20-years old and has taken great leaps forward this season for both on and off-ice approaches to the game. If expectations are “necessary” for a first round draft choice I kindly point people toward the season that Austin Watson is finally having in the NHL and the long path it took for him to get there – at now 25-years old. People can be foaming at the mouth for Viktor Arvidsson now but he is the player that he is by comparison to someone such as Fiala because he is three-years older and has played 115 games of pro level experience more. The polish to Arvidsson’s game and maturity come largely because of that experience.

During the 2013-14 season the Admirals had contributions for 47 games from a 19-year old named Filip Forsberg. He was placed in the AHL on the basis of sharpening his attention to detail and finding consistency in his all-around play. There was optimism that Fiala’s “Forsberg Year” was the 2015-16 season that saw him dip a toe in the NHL for 5 games but stuck around in the AHL for the season and was the Admirals leading scorer – as a teenager. Of the Admirals roster throughout the whole of this current season there are only three players to have played that are younger than Fiala: Anthony Richard, Alex Carrier, and Vladislav Kamenev. Only one of those names was a full-time pro a season ago and the other two are just beginning their pro careers this season.

In different circumstances Fiala is a first-year pro this or last season. He is then massively ahead of the curve as far as his developmental process goes for a 20-year old. Yet, do not let that fact detract from the very real nature that he is still a prospect destined for some speed bumps along the way.

The Fiala that I’ve had the opportunity to observe this season with the Predators is largely different than his past self. He is starting to fill into his frame as the kid becomes more of a man. Him getting stronger is allowing him to feel more comfortable getting into dirty areas as well as finding better success in those key places on the ice. Having talked to him during the Summer and in his brief time in Milwaukee this season – I’m talking to a different person than when he first arrived. He is by far and away more comfortable in his own skin in the North American environment than when he first showed up and he is also getting a far greater understanding of the different style game that this region of the world plays. He’s matured off the ice. Last season went a long way into seeing that become reality. He isn’t looking to shoot himself in the foot or be down on himself. That same treatment is given to his play where he seems to be far less recklessness the way he plays and he is starting to make savvy reads on both offense and defense.

That’s not to say there aren’t some bad turnovers that he makes from time to time or even offensive plays that he could bury – that he doesn’t. This is the breaking point that can get him pushed down the lineup or flat out healthy scratched. As the Predators begin to assemble a more layered approach to the way they attack a game these days, with more veteran minded or scrappy players like the line of Cody McLeod–Derek Grant–Harry Zolnierczyk, it makes having the risk-reward element of Fiala one that isn’t as tempting to go to at the moment. So, if you’re not playing him or don’t have intent to, why leave him in the cold when at 20-years of age he should be playing, developing, learning, and proving the Predators wrong in their decision to send him down. You should want a level of fire in Fiala’s game, shift-by-shift, and game-by-game. That is the exact result the Predators would have wanted. And it is the exact result they received in two games played for the Admirals on the road in Charlotte.

The path of getting to the NHL takes so many different forms. Frédérick Gaudreau and Mike Liambas were amazing stories for their long roads to Nashville. Others, even if a bit more direct like a 2015 NHL Draft selection such as Alex Carrier, can still be surprising given how fast they can push for the opportunity. Fiala didn’t get to the NHL too fast. He isn’t getting there consistently too slow. He’s just learning like the Forsberg, Watson, and the Anthony Bitetto‘s of the world before him.

Right now the Predators are allowing Fiala the freedom to learn in far greater capacity at the AHL level, for however long it might be, than they feel they have the flexibility to do now in the NHL. That shouldn’t be viewed as a negative of the Predators. And it certainly shouldn’t be viewed as a poor reflection of Fiala.

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