Philip Tomasino Trade is Bad Look for Predators

In what felt like an inevitable move, the Nashville Predators traded Philip Tomasino to the Pittsburgh Penguins Monday for a fourth-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.

The 23-year-old had evidently fallen out of favor during his five years in the Predators organization – spanning two general managers and two head coaches – and was a prime candidate for a change-of-scenery trade. It made sense for Nashville to acquire an asset for Tomasino, who was playing on a one-year, $925,000 contract he signed this past offseason.

Related: Predators Trade Tomasino to Penguins

At first glance, the return of a fourth-round pick feels appropriate for a forward who had one assist through 11 games this year and spent the previous two seasons bouncing back and forth between the AHL and NHL. But this trade feels so much bigger than the sum of its parts, perhaps because it's illustrative of a greater systemic issue plaguing the Predators organization.

Tomasino is the third former first-round pick the Predators have parted with in the last three months, joining goalie Yaroslav Askarov 2020 first-round pick), who was traded to the San Jose Sharks in September, and defenseman Dante Fabbro (2016 first-round pick), who was waived earlier this month and claimed by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

In 2022, the Predators waived forward Eeli Tolvanen, a 2017 first-round pick, who was picked up by the Seattle Kraken. Going back even further, Nashville traded 2014 first-round pick Kevin Fiala to the Minnesota Wild in 2019 and 2013 first-round pick Seth Jones to Columbus in 2016.

Admittedly, none of these decisions was made in a vacuum, and not every trade of a former first-rounder can be considered a failure; the Jones trade, for example, netted the Predators Ryan Johansen, who was an instrumental part of Nashville's run to the 2017 Stanley Cup Final. Still, the fact remains that the Predators seem to have trouble holding onto first-round picks – and recently, they seem to have trouble flipping them for assets.

This trend feels problematic on its own, but especially so in the context of the next NHL Draft in 2025, in which the Predators have three first-round picks. Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported last week that general manager Barry Trotz has no intention of parting with any of those picks in a trade.

Granted, all of the aforementioned first-rounders were drafted by the Predators before Trotz took over the GM role in 2022, but Nashville's amateur scouting staff remains largely unchanged after the transition of power from Hall of Fame GM David Poile.

The optics of Nashville's two most recent trades with Pittsburgh – both of which involved former first-rounders in Tomasino and Cody Glass – are not good. In exchange for the Predators' 2019 first-round pick and the Vegas Golden Knights' 2017 first-round pick, respectively, Nashville got a fourth-round pick and an undrafted ECHL forward (Jordan Frasca).

The primary issue, then, might not be Nashville's inability to scout and select elite talent in the first round of the Draft. It might be that the Predators consistently misjudge the market for their tradable assets. It might even be that they can't develop high-end forwards.

In reality, though, the Predators are a product of circumstance. Yes, their track record with first-round picks is concerning to say the least, but the vast majority of them are late-round picks. The Predators' refusal to commit to a full teardown and rebuild has resulted in years of picking outside of the top 10 in the draft order.

Be that as it may, one would think that after years of the same result for the Predators (make the playoffs, only to exit early), their scouting and development staffs would have gotten better at identifying late-round talent. If the Predators are still trying to salvage their current season and Trotz is determined to hold onto his trio of first-round picks in 2025, something needs to change with the team's draft strategy.

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