This is the WORST move of the offseason...

This is the worst move of the offseason as the Nashville Predators trade young budding star Luke Evangelista to the New Jersey Devils. In this video we're going to break down why this trade is really bad for the Nashville Predators going forward and so much more. You should not want to miss this episode of NHL Digest. But before I dive into everything here, I just want to say we're on the road for 20,000 subscribers here before the season starts. So if you're new here you want to set the date on the latest around the NHL we are home for it here on YouTube. Subscribe below, hit that subscribe button, it's completely free to do so. But we got to talk about this out of nowhere trade between the Nashville Predators and the New Jersey Devils. I know my co-host Pat did dive into the more the Devil's side of the trade last night and I'm here today to kind of express some frustration which I'm seeing across the Nashville Predators fan base today and yesterday. After this trade it really made no sense to give away a young budding star within your lineup who was a really one of the biggest bright spots of your entire season last year for basically nothing. You know you're getting a a first and if New Jersey competes this year it's going to be a late round for a late round pick which really giving up Evangelista for a late round pick and a second I really think that's very undervalued and I do think the New Jersey Devils did make a steal of a trade here I just had to put it bluntly and it really doesn't make sense why Chris McFarland would make this trade for the Nashville Predators. I am going to dive into a little bit what's coming you know in a little bit later in this video but first I want to talk about how bad this trade was like I mentioned it was a first round pick which I presume is maybe going to be a late round pick and a second round pick for Luke Evangelista here a 24 year old forward who has looked very very good in this top six and a guy by any means is going to be a future star in this league and just looking at what he did last year at 56 points in 81 games 12 goals 44 assists he had 176 shots 17 power play points at 24 years on a team that at 24 years old on a team that did really bad last year that's good for this young guy he took a big step in his development and looked very good and like a solid NHL-er last season on a team like I said that was very lackluster and you really think going into the season oh I'm excited to see Evangelista and what he has in store for this season but unfortunately they make a trade where you don't get anybody in return I would get it if they made a trade where they traded Evangelista for one of the you know young up-and-coming uh d-men that the New Jersey Devils do have that would make sense in my mind but giving them away and not getting any player in return doesn't make any sense in my opinion so I do just want to you know express that for frustration to what I'm seeing online because by all the advanced analytics this guy is a star in the league or going to be a star in the league if you see here you know uh Twitter user says Luke Evangelista is the NHL's Jalen Brunson saying he's just so underrated just looking at these goals above replacement which is basically like you know how many goals you are going to contribute over a person that will hypothetical person that will replace you in that situation he has over 20 goals above replacements here which puts him just under Leon Dreisaitl and just above Marty Natchez and Macklin Celebrini who had 115 points season last year so by any means of you know this is a player who is going to be a future star when you see his name on lists like this you see the Jay Fresh chart he has a 91 percentile EV defense he's a great defensive forward a great guy who you see here his offense defense and finishing all trended upward after last season and you see here his war percentile went sky high as well after last season I mean this guy when you look at all these stats he is a first liner look the athletics chart he's 80 percentile at the net rating of plus 5.2 which puts him on the first line he has a plus 3.3 offensive rating a plus 1.9 defensive rating with a market value of 9.2 million in this in this uh in this market that we're in right now that's a steal for a player like this and I really do think what happened here between the National Predators and Luke Evangelista was saying hey we're starting to talk on contract extensions and I think they were nowhere in the ballpark to what they wanted to give Luke Evangelista and they decided hey let's get somebody else to give him that money and let's just trade him out and you know wash our hands in this situation and I do think that is a bad mindset to have if you are a GM in today's league you have a young star who's playing out of his mind on a lackluster team by all the events analytics we looked at is going to be a future star future first liner in this league and you give him up give him away for nothing why do you do that why would you give up a player like this you know is it to give Brady Martin more minutes is it to give you know Matthew Wood more minutes is that what it is at the end of the day because in my mind if that's it that is just a bad reason to trade this player away because yes they do have some great young stars coming up behind him there's no doubt about it no doubt about like Wood and Martin and there's so many to talk about but if you're kind of like you're kind of in the middle range of you know a lot of veterans a lot of young and up-and-coming talents you really have to pick a side to where you're going to go right now and it really looks like they're looking to steer towards not going into a rebuild by trading away a key cornerstone piece to a rebuild and they're maybe looking to create some cap space to bring in another veteran to try to compete now and looking at this roster right now it's not horrible i think it looks a lot worse without Evangelista in there there's a lot of risk involved in having a lineup like this you're really hoping that guys like Martin and Wood and you know Hoglander and Pinchuk and all these guys have good years for you because if not there's going to be basically no offense within the bottom six and you need offense in the bottom six to be a successful team yes the first two lines are loaded with Philip Forsberg, Sam Koso, Riley, Marsha Cho who had a bad season but is looking to bounce back like you know their top six is all right right like they're going to score goals they're going to create offense but when you look at the defense it's not bad either you know you have Brady Shea, Roman Yoshi, Yoshi obviously being a key piece to that but after that top pairing it falls off a cliff and you have UC Saros in the net who is a great goalie you know he has struggled at times but there's a lot of risk involved going to his season with a lineup like this and trading out a key piece a bright spot of this lineup just makes it a whole lot worse and it just to me seems like there is something more coming from this there has to be they can't just trade away for nothing for no reason because I think that would just hurts the team more than not what one thing I am seeing online a lot of fans are talking about maybe this puts them within the Dylan Larkin sweepstakes obviously Larkin a lot would have to go right Larkin would have to wave is no movement clause wave is no trade cause to go to Nashville and yes Nashville does have a lot of young pieces to trade back to get a guy like Dylan Larkin but they just traded a key piece in a trade like that for nothing so it really makes no sense to me why they made this trade I think it's the worst trade of the offseason by far whenever you trade a mid-20s up-and-coming budding star for nothing it's a head scratcher a lot of people are shocked by this and rightfully so if you guys you know have made some sense of this in your minds let me know in the comment section I'd love to hear your guys thoughts what do you think is next for the Nashville Predators do you think it's Dylan Larkin because a lot of people do think so but let me know what you guys think down below in the comment section like I said this was a trade that shocked a lot of people I'm here a day removed from this trade I still don't know why they did this and I really don't understand it at all so let me know what you guys think down below in the comment section if you enjoyed leave a like subscribe to the channel as always I've been your host Casey keep it stick on the ice