GAME DAY: Preds at Jets, December 30

The penultimate game of the 2024 calendar year has arrived for the Nashville Predators, and they’ve headed north of the border to take on the Winnipeg Jets tonight at Canada Life Centre for a 6:30 p.m. CT puck drop. This evening’s contest is the second of four meetings between the division rivals this season; the Preds defeated the Jets earlier this season, and they’ll visit Winnipeg for a second time to close out this five-game road trip.

Nashville found success with a 3-0-1 homestand heading into the holiday break, but they returned from Christmas with a 7-4 loss in St. Louis on Friday. Now, the Predators will look to take the good from that outing and get back into the win column as the year nears its end.

“It’s not going to get any easier with the quality opponents that we’re playing coming up here, so we have no choice but to clean things up,” Preds forward Steven Stamkos said following Friday’s loss. “So, we’ll look to do that. And it’s going to be a challenge, but we have no choice at this point.”

The Preds made a pair of transactions on Saturday, the first of which was a recall of forward Vinnie Hinostroza – the AHL’s leading scorer – from Milwaukee. Then, Nashville dealt forward Juuso Parssinen and the New York Rangers’ seventh-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft to Colorado in exchange for forward Ondrej Pavel and a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.

Following Saturday’s practice, Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said he expects Hinostroza to play on the wing when he gets into the lineup. Hinostroza skated with Michael McCarron and Colton Sissons during Saturday’s session.