Barry Trotz and the Nashville Predators' busy offseason: Draft, important dates, schedule

With the Nashville Predators' season officially over after a first-round playoff loss to the Vancouver Canucks, a busy offseason looms.

With more than four months until training camp for the 2024-25 season, there's plenty on the docket for general manager Barry Trotz as he evaluates his team and strategizes its future.

Here's a rundown of the next several weeks for the Predators.

Nashville Predators make final evaluations and prepare for NHL draft

During the next couple weeks, Trotz will meet internally with his staff to complete team evaluations. The players had their exit interviews last week — now the front office must evaluate the team's situation overall. We will not see the results of these meetings for a while, but this is when big decisions are made.

Will they decide to sign goaltender Juuse Saros long term? Or try to trade him for scoring help? What does the team do to get better at forward? These are the big-picture questions the team will tackle the next few weeks.

Simultaneously, the team's scouting arm will meet to begin draft preparations. Jeff Kealty, the team's assistant general manager and director of scouting, will meet with his pro and amateur scouts on a daily basis to plan their draft strategy.

WHAT TROTZ SAID: Nashville Predators GM Trotz on getting faster at forward, free agents, Juuse Saros

The scouting combine will be held June 2-8 at the LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo, New York. The NHL entry draft will be held June 28-29 at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

Barry Trotz, Nashville Predators need to make qualifying offers

Every NHL team can make qualifying offers to restricted free agents by July 1 to avoid them becoming unrestricted free agents. In most cases, offers must be 110% of their previous salary.

According to Cap Friendly, the Predators have 10 restricted free agents this summer. Here's the list of players, plus their qualifying offers for 2024-25:

• Egor Afanasyev (F) - $813,750

• Wade Allison (F) - $861,000

• Jaret Anderson-Dolan (F) - $813,750

• Marc Del Gaizo (D) - $813,750

• Liam Foudy (F) - $813,750

• Gustavs Grigals (G) - $813,750

• Juuso Parssinen (F) - $813,750

• Spencer Stastney (D) - $874,125

• Philip Tomasino (F) - $874,125

• Adam Wilsby (D) - $813,750

These offers are one-year salary amounts only; they do not include signing or performance bonuses. Teams can offer more than the qualifying offer — these numbers are the minimums needed to keep a player's rights.

NHL free agency day

The most important day for the Predators — at least in the short term — is July 1. That's the day all teams can officially offer contracts to unrestricted free agents.

The Predators have six unrestricted free agents this summer: Jason Zucker, Anthony Beauvillier, Kiefer Sherwood, Tyson Barrie, Alex Carrier and Kevin Lankinen. Trotz can negotiate with these players anytime up to July 1; after that, they can test the market.

WHAT THEY SAID: What Nashville Predators want to improve this summer, from Roman Josi to Juuse Saros

Additionally, players entering the final year of their contract are eligible for extensions as of July 1. This is the situation with Saros, who has one year remaining on his four-year, $20 million contract.

Because Saros is under contract, Trotz can negotiate with his representation anytime up until July 1, but an extension cannot be made official until that day. Given the magnitude of that decision, Trotz likely will be focused primarily on what to do with his ace goaltender for the next several weeks.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Barry Trotz, Nashville Predators' offseason: Important dates, schedule