Before moving forward with his new duties and his task of turning around another NHL franchise, Chris MacFarland took a moment to look back.
McFarland’s hire as president of hockey operations and general manager of the Nashville Predators was announced Tuesday. During his introductory news conference Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena, he thanked his old boss, Joe Sakic, and his old team, the Colorado Avalanche, for giving him a chance.
Then, on to his next assignment: building the Predators, who have missed the playoffs three of the past four seasons, into a perennial Stanley Cup contender, much like his old team.
Nashville just might be caught at the moment in the precarious spot MacFarland referred to as the “mushy middle” — a place that’s not bad enough for a top draft pick but not quite elite enough to challenge for a title.
The answer that Predators chairman and majority owner Bill Haslam gave MacFarland, though, about their commitment to winning is precisely the reason MacFarland jumped at the chance to join the organization.
“Because it was going to take a hell of an opportunity and situation to get me to think about leaving Colorado,” said MacFarland, who spent 11 seasons with the Avalanche, including the past four as the GM. “I said, ‘Mr. Haslam, is the goal here to make the playoffs, make the wild card, feel good about that and high-five each other? Or is the goal here to build a team that can compete and try to bring a Stanley Cup to Broadway?’
“He didn’t hesitate. The goal here is to try and win. That’s really, quite honestly, all I needed to hear.”
MacFarland steps into a role in Music City that belonged to Barry Trotz, who will take an advisory role with the organization after announcing earlier this season that he was retiring from the GM job he had held since July 2023. Trotz, who turns 64 next month, was also the first head coach in Predators history, leading the team from its debut season (1998-99) through 2014.
The 56-year-old MacFarland was a hot commodity after helping assemble a team in Colorado that turned in the NHL’s best regular-season record this year before being swept by the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference title series. He’s a finalist for NHL general manager of the year.
So how quick can he transform the Predators?
“It’s a fair question,” MacFarland said. “I’m going to need time to poke around under the hood here and to truly get a feel for that.”
His immediate plan is to meet with the coaching staff — including Andrew Brunette, who is 115-108-23 in three seasons as Nashville’s head coach — and the scouts.
The Predators have the No. 10 pick in this year’s draft, which is set for June 26-27 in Buffalo, New York. And while all options remain on the table, MacFarland pointed out that when he was in Denver, the Avalanche used their 10th pick in 2015 on Finnish forward Mikko Rantanen.
“We all know how good he is,” said MacFarland, who also traded Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes in January 2025 as part of a deal for Martin Necas, while Rantanen was later traded again to the Dallas Stars.
“You’ve just got to keep building good player upon good player and putting them in good situations,” added MacFarland, who pumped the brakes on thoughts of acquiring a franchise forward.
“Those guys usually aren’t traded, right?” said MacFarland, who was with the Columbus Blue Clippers from 1999 to 2015 in various roles before helping turn around the Avalanche, who won the Stanley Cup in 2022. “You usually have to go through some pain to get those guys in the draft, and the acquisition cost on those types of guys in the marketplace is astronomical.”
Still, a player in the vein of Nathan McKinnon, the league-leading scorer this season who was selected by Colorado as the No. 1 pick of the 2013 draft and has remained with the team, would sure come in handy.
“We will leave no stone unturned,” said MacFarland, whose press conference was attended by Nashville players that included wing Filip Forsberg and defenseman Nicolas Hague. “We will be ready that if there is an opportunity to strike from the outside, we’ll have done the work. … But those guys are hard to get and hard to acquire.”
Since the franchise’s lone Stanley Cup Final in 2017, the Predators have advanced beyond the second round once (2018) in six postseason appearances (including the pandemic-altered 2020 postseason), but Music City still had plenty of appeal for MacFarland.
Nick Saban, the Predators minority owner better known as a College Football Hall of Fame coach, played a role in recruiting him. Saban, 74, who was a dominant figure in the Southeastern Conference for decades as he led Alabama to six national championships and LSU to another, was praised by both Haslam and Predators CEO Sean Henry.
“The way he evaluates things, it changes the entire interview process for us,” Henry said. “There are times where we’re looking at him saying, ‘Oh, I wish I asked that.’ Or, ‘I wish I saw it that way.’ … It was incredible.”
The one thing MacFarland will need to get used to at the arena are “Fang Fingers,” a hand gesture used by Predators faithful during games.
“When I came in here with the Avs or the Blue Jackets, that thing drove me nuts,” MacFarland cracked. “Because it usually meant something bad might be happening with the likes of Shea Weber and P.K. Subban and some of those guys.
“No matter what the record is, we are going to do things first class and we are going to build something special incrementally — small step by small step. Sometimes that takes time.”