MacFarland settled in with Predators after 'whirlwind' start as new GM

WINDSOR, Ontario -- Chris MacFarland walked into WFCU Center on Wednesday wearing a dark hoodie with a blacked-out Nashville Predators logo in the center of his chest.

After 11 seasons with the Colorado Avalanche, the last four as general manager, the 56-year-old joined the Predators as president of hockey operations and GM on June 2 and made a series of moves.

Now he’s on his first scouting trip for his new team, watching the World Junior Summer Showcase, a tournament featuring prospects from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States.

Nashville has seven prospects here, including its first draft pick under MacFarland -- U.S. center Wyatt Cullen, the No. 10 pick of the 2026 NHL Draft.

“This is super exciting,” MacFarland said. “We all love to watch games, and to have that many guys here is exciting for me. You know these guys. You know them as players. But I certainly don’t know them as well as I’m going to know them within the next couple of months, and this is a good launch point for me and for our staff to watch them play in a competitive environment.”

MacFarland said it was a tough decision to leave Colorado, and he will always care about the Avalanche. He helped them win the Stanley Cup as assistant GM in 2022. They made the playoffs in each of his four seasons as GM and won the Presidents’ Trophy with the NHL’s best record last season.

But the Predators presented an intriguing opportunity. He made the change at a busy time, with the NHL Combine, NHL Draft and free agency all coming in his first month. Among his moves: hiring Rob Blake as executive vice president of hockey operations and Jamie Langenbrunner as special assistant to the GM, and acquiring forwards Mavrik Bourque, Ross Colton, Jack Drury, Adam Edstrom, Nils Hoglander and Alex Kerfoot along with defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin.

“It was a whirlwind, but that’s the hockey business, right?” he said.

Bourque was a key addition. The 24-year-old had 41 points (20 goals, 21 assists) in 82 games last season, his second full season in the NHL. After acquiring him from the Dallas Stars in a trade on July 1, the Predators signed him to a six-year, $33 million contract ($5.5 million average annual value) on July 4.

Could he be a first-line center?

“I think where he can get to will be up to him, but we feel he doesn’t have to be anything other than what he’s been,” MacFarland said. “He was a 20-goal guy last year. If he can just come in and replicate that and be part of that younger core, that would excite us, whether that’s second-line center or middle-six winger or whatever. He’s going to get every opportunity to excel in the middle of the ice, that’s for sure.”

MacFarland said he will continue to talk to other GMs, looking for ways to improve the roster, while talking with his staff to prepare for the season.

“We’d like to find a way to add a little bit of puck skill to the back end if we could,” he said. “Not easy to do. But if there’s just incremental ways that we can get better, no matter whether it’s up front or back end or wherever, we’re going to look to do that.

“And then obviously it’ll be my first time through with these guys with rookie camp and training camp and how (coach Andrew Brunette) wants to do things. We’ll talk as a staff. We’re bringing some of the guys in next week for some meetings that we probably wouldn’t normally do the first week in August. …

“We figured it was a good time to talk about some things and see if we’ll tweak some things in terms of processes or protocols.”

This will be an important training camp for the Predators, and not just because they’ve made so many changes. They started 6-12-4 last season. Although they went 32-22-6 the rest of the schedule, they missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second straight season, finishing sixth in the Central Division and four points behind the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card in the Western Conference.

“I know one of the things in talking with our leadership group at the end of the year when I first got there was, they felt their start last year hurt them,” MacFarland said. “They had to do some chasing and did a really admirable job to get into the playoff hunt, and I think that’ll obviously be something hopefully that we focus on. I mean, there are no easy games, as you know, and our division is a bear, and the conference is good. We’re going to have to be ready right from the start.”

MacFarland is focused on the long term, though.

“The goal is not to build a wild card team or a team that can make the playoffs,” he said. “It’s really hard to do. Don’t get me wrong. But our goal is to methodically build a team that can get into that window where we’re hopefully competing or having a chance to win the big prize, so what we’re going to try to focus on day by day is that process.”