Brad Treliving already linked to another GM position.

There has been a ton of shuffling of the decks around the National Hockey League towards the latter part of the 2025-26 regular season, with several coaches and general managers around the league losing their jobs after disappointing seasons.

That means that teams around the league are scrambling to look for new replacements, and one team that got a head start over some of the others is the Nashville Predators. The Predators made a very early change at the general manager position when former general manager Barry Trotz stepped down from the role back in February.

Although the Predators did look internally for a potential replacement, it now sounds like they will hire an external candidate who already has a degree of NHL experience.

"I believe the Predators have decided they are going to go external," said Friedman on the 32 Thoughts Podcast.

That may seem a bit confusing given that Friedman himself linked former Predators captain Tom Fitzgerald to the job, although it sounds like Fitzgerald's time since spent with other teams qualifies him under that criteria.

"Even though Fitzgerald was the captain there a long time ago, he's been away for a while so he is considered an external candidate," clarified Friedman.

The biggest news drop of Friedman's update on Monday morning however came in the form of two former NHL general managers being linked to the job. Both former Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving and former Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams are candidates Friedman seems to strongly believe the Predators may have already spoken to.

"I'm also curious to see here if the Predators take a look at either Kevyn Adams or Brad Treliving," said Friedman. "They want an aGM or GM that has recently served in the position. The fact that they've gone to Fitzgerald... the fact that they've opened to him, I do wonder if they talked to the other two guys."

The work of Kevyn Adams was much maligned during his tenure as general manager of the Sabres, but the perception around Adams has taken a drastic shift given the success of the Buffalo Sabres, a team he built, this season.

The same can be said of Treliving's work during his tenure with the Maple Leafs, although, unlike with Adams, time has made the moves from Treliving's tenure look even worse than they did initially. It is frankly somewhat surprising to see his name mentioned in connection with another role given just how poorly his short tenure with the Maple Leafs has gone for that franchise.