The Nashville Predators are 6-12-4 and sit last in the league with just 16 standings points. The Predators are one of only two teams in the NHL yet to reach 20 points this season, sparking discussion about the team’s coaching staff and management.

Predators’ general manager Barry Trotz, a former Stanley Cup champion head coach with the Washington Capitals, recently laid the blame at the feet of the club’s players in an explosive interview with the Tennessean’s Alex Daugherty.

“I need more (expletive) from them,” he said. “I need more.

“I’m watching the game systematically,” Trotz continued. “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 [head coach Andrew Brunette’s] fault.”

In the game right after the story came out, the Predators gave up a goal to the Florida Panthers just 11 seconds into the first period and lost 8-3. The blowout and immediate lack of response to Trotz’s message prompted hockey insider Frank Seravalli to drop an eyebrow-raising report on the current feelings around the Predators.

“[Predators players] responded for you after you played a significant card,” Seravalli said on Bleacher Report’s Insider Notebook. “You used a bullet as one option to try and get this team back on track, which is blast the players in the media. Okay, so he did that. Eleven seconds in is how they answered. I’ve talked for weeks repeatedly about how the environment around the Nashville Predators is the most toxic in the NHL, from top to bottom.

“No one is in a good place in the Nashville Predators organization, and they don’t like the way that things have been handled. The play then isn’t to put your players on blast publicly. That’s not going to go over well, and we saw the response quite clearly on Monday night in Nashville. It’s a brutal situation, and I don’t know where they go from here.”

Trotz received an opportunity to comment directly on Seravalli’s report during a radio appearance on 102.5 The Game on Tuesday.

“My response is, I talked to my captain,” Trotz said. “I saw that today, too. I actually talked to a couple of our key people, and they sort of chuckled at that. They thought that was not very accurate. But everybody has their own opinion. Frank’s not in our room, and he’s not downstairs.

“I know what toxic is, and I don’t feel we’re there. So I probably disagree with him. But, you know, his insiders and whoever’s telling him that, I would love them to come talk to me about it because I don’t see it.”

Trotz replaced David Poile as Predators GM ahead of the 2023-24 season, taking the first front office job of his career after being an NHL head coach for 23 years. Andrew Brunette, in his third season as the team’s coach, was hired one day before Trotz in 2023.

Under the two’s guidance, the team had a highly disappointing 2024-25 campaign, missing the playoffs after making significant financial commitments to free-agent forwards like Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, and defenseman Brady Skjei. So far this year, the three marquee signings have combined for just eight goals.

The Predators are currently ranked 30th in the league in goals-against per game (3.68) and dead last (32nd) in goals for per game (2.32). In their last 10 games, they have won just once in regulation, against the other team patrolling the bottom of the NHL standings, the 8-13-3 Calgary Flames.

If the team’s situation doesn’t turn around quickly, there have been reports that owner Bill Haslam may step in and direct management to begin a roster rebuild. Notable veterans on the team’s roster include Stamkos, Marchessault, Skjei, Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, Ryan O’Reilly, and Juuse Saros.