There were rumors the Nashville Predators were about to make some moves. The move they made on Tuesday might not be exactly what insiders had in mind.
The Predators have picked up Michael McCarron from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Laurent Dauphin, a forward with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. This is essentially a depth and minor league trade.
Dauphin has moved around a little throughout his professional hockey career. He was first dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks as part of the Niklas Hjalmarsson trade and seven months later, he was sent back to Arizona as part of a swap that saw Richard Panik and Anthony Duclair switch teams. Despite the movement, he’s played only 35 total games in the NHL. He’s likely earmarked for the Laval Rockets of the AHL.
Montreal moves on from McCarron after he failed to really make a dent with the organization. Selected 25th overall in 2013, he’s a big body at 6’6″ but he struggled to even hold down regular fourth-line minutes. There’s an argument he’s been a casualty of the change in today’s NHL game and that players of his style don’t really have a defined role any longer. Perhaps he’ll get an opportunity to show he can find a role with the Predators organization.
Both players will become Group VI unrestricted free agents at the end of the season and neither team may elect to hold onto them. That said, there is an expectation, at least in Nashville, that McCarron may get a chance to prove his worth.
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