Barry Trotz announced Monday that he is stepping down as general manager of the Nashville Predators — although he will remain on the job until a successor is found.
The team held a media conference at noon central time to confirm the news that Trotz is retiring at the end of the regular season.
Most importantly, Trotz is healthy. This is a retirement; he is not interested in coaching. And, the team has hired CAA to run its search process.
After a rough start to the 2025-26 season, the Predators rallied to within four points of a playoff spot as of Sunday night. However, with just days remaining until the Olympic freeze and a month until the trade deadline, the team was also investigating all of its options.
Trotz is one of the greatest figures in Nashville hockey history, named as its inaugural head coach one year before the Predators dropped the puck. He stayed until April 2014, before moving to Washington (winning the Stanley Cup in 2018) and the Islanders.
He became the second GM in Predators history in 2023, replacing David Poile.
Trotz, 63, said Monday he informed majority owner Bill Haslam in December that he intended to step away when his contract expired at the end of the 2026-27 season.
“After some discussion, we elected to begin a search for my replacement now, but I am happy to work in my current role until we make a new hire, however long that might be,” Trotz said.
Haslam aims to have a new GM in place by the draft in late June. He downplayed any disagreement between ownership and Trotz that led to this plan.
Trotz’s second act with the Predators was much shorter than his first, when he coached them from their inception in 1998 through 2014, bringing respectability and relevancy to an expansion team playing in a so-called non-traditional market.
–with files from Sportsnet staff, the Associated Press
