Predators Acquire Bourque, Lyubushkin From Stars for Draft Picks

The Nashville Predators are acquiring center Mavrik Bourque and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin from the Dallas Stars for the Predators’ 2027 second-round pick and a 2028 third-round pick from the Vegas Golden Knights, according to Elliotte Friedman from SportsNet.

Predators general manager Chris MacFarland has added a lot of forwards between the ages of 24 and 29 recently, acquiring Jack Drury and Ross Colton from the Colorado Avalanche and Nils Hoglander from the Vancouver Canucks. Similar to Drury, Bourque was a restricted free agent, but the Predators took advantage of the fact that Bourque was a likely offer-sheet candidate.

What the Predators Are Getting

Bourque is a forward with legitimate top-six potential. Stars fans had been waiting for him to achieve that after his rock-star 2023-24 season in the American Hockey League, where he had 26 goals and 51 assists in 71 games.

In 2024-25, he had 11 goals and 14 assists through 73 games in the bottom six. However, last season, he had 20 goals and 21 assists in 82 games.

Bourque is a solid two-way forward. He’s always been good defensively, with a plus-12 rating in his NHL career. There are legitimate gripes about his ability to win faceoffs, as he has just a career 45.8% faceoff percentage (FO%).

However, he should take a bigger role in Nashville. He had just 1:07 per game on the power play, with the Stars usually putting Matt Duchene, Wyatt Johnston, and Tyler Seguin over him. He should get plenty of power-play opportunities in Nashville.

Ilya Lyubushkin was a throw-in piece in the deal. The depth defenseman was signed to a woeful three-year contract worth $3.23 million per season. However, he has just one season left on that deal, and the Predators need depth on their defense. Last season, he had one goal and eight assists in 53 games. He’s physical and solid in his own zone.

What the Stars Are Getting in This Deal

The Stars are getting a decent return for a forward who could’ve signed an offer sheet. Their main priority is signing Jason Robertson, and an offer sheet to Bourque would’ve complicated things. As a result, Bourque was considered expendable.

The second-round pick belongs to the Predators, so if they finish around where they did last season, the Stars could get a medium-to-high-value second-round pick out of the deal. The third-round pick belongs to the Golden Knights, who traded it away to get Cole Smith from the Predators.

They also get cap relief through trading Lyubushkin. The Stars had a trade for Zach Werenski rejected, but if they want to go big-game hunting for another defenseman, they have more cap space to do so.

Cap Outlook

The Predators have around $14.5 million in cap space to work with, although they haven’t signed Bourque to an extension yet. When that contract comes out, they’ll have to spend the remainder to come up with a deal for pending RFAs Luke Evangelista and Matthew Wood. RFA Justin Barron is also still awaiting a deal.

The Stars, meanwhile, have around $12 million to work with. Most, if not all, of that is going towards re-signing Jason Robertson. There aren’t any other contracts to iron out unless they want to re-sign Jamie Benn, who is currently an unrestricted free agent. Considering Robertson rejected a contract offer of around $15 million to go to the Seattle Kraken via trade, I think they’ll need to make another move.