Poile Talks Taxi Squad, AHL Roster Decisions for Preds

The Predators have made some additional decisions on their taxi squad and American Hockey League personnel.
Nashville General Manager David Poile addressed the moves on Thursday morning, announcing forwards Philip Tomasino, Eeli Tolvanen, Mathieu Olivier and Michael McCarron, defenseman Ben Harpur and goaltender Connor Ingram will make up the team's taxi squad.
That group of players will travel with the main Predators roster as the team heads to Dallas for their first road trip of the season, a two-game set against the Stars.

With the AHL season set to begin on Feb. 5, and training camps opening soon, Poile and the Preds have also made these roster designations, assigning forward Cole Smith to the Chicago Wolves on Thursday to join fellow forwards Patrick Harper, Tanner Jeannot, Sean Malone, Tommy Novak, Rem Pitlick, Anthony Richard and Josh Wilkins; defensemen Alexandre Carrier, Jeremy Davies, and Tyler Lewington; and goaltender Kasimir Kaskisuo in Chicago.
The Predators came to an agreement with the Carolina Hurricanes to send their AHL prospects to Chicago this season after Nashville's primary affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, announced they were opting out of the 2020-21 AHL season.
While the taxi squad has been set for now, Poile stated Thursday that the taxi squad is likely to change throughout the season. The goal is for every player in the organization to get into game action at some point, and players may be rotated through depending on specific situations.

"I would think that we're going to have a lot of changes in the taxi squad over the year," Poile said. "If the players on the taxi squad are playing somewhat regular, I think that would be fine and good, but if they're not playing, I think you could see us making some adjustments or shifts between here and the Chicago Wolves. This year, just philosophically, I don't think it's the best thing, if you will, for guys not to play. So again, a factor of our good play, maybe injuries, that type of thing, as to how much rotation we have with this taxi squad.
"Specifically, in the goaltending situation with Ingram and Kaskisuo, I'd like to get both of them in some action. If Ingram is not getting some games up here, I could certainly see us rotating our goaltenders sometime in the near future, and that probably goes for the other regular positions."
The general manager also discussed the players assigned to the AHL and how this season's training camp - a 10-day camp that didn't include any exhibition games due to COVID protocols set forth by the NHL - made for some difficult decisions.
"Just to be honest, in some of the conversations we've had with younger players, it was hard to give everybody the opportunity that we thought we would at a normal training camp," Poile said. "And what I mean by that is you [usually] get a three-week period of training camp, you have six to seven preseason games, and your hope is to play these younger players in, say, four preseason games so everybody can get a good look at [every player] and make a really good decision. But I don't think that was really available and possible to us this year."
Poile mentioned Carrier as a player the Preds want playing meaningful games in Chicago to start the season so he will be ready to make the jump to Nashville if needed, and that remains the case for plenty of others on the AHL roster, too.
The agreement with the Hurricanes, whose prospects will also be playing with the Wolves this season, allows for an even split between the two NHL clubs. Therefore, the Preds will be able to dress one goaltender, three defensemen and six forwards in each game for the Wolves this season.
The situation isn't perfect, but it's one that works in the current climate, and as has already been seen with the postponement of Nashville's game on Tuesday due to COVID issues with the Hurricanes, all parties need to be prepared for anything to happen.