MacFarland Reunites With Another Former Avalanche Forward in Drury Trade

The Nashville Predators made another trade on Thursday that brings in a familiar face for their new president of hockey operations and general manager Chris MacFarland. He’s adding forward Jack Drury, the same guy he drafted and later traded for when he was running the Colorado Avalanche.

Nashville is getting Drury, Chase Bradley, and a third-round pick in the 2029 NHL Draft from the Avalanche. Going back to Colorado are forward prospects Zachary L’Heureux and Fedor Svechkov. Elliotte Friedman broke the news first.

This is the second time MacFarland has grabbed a player he knows well from Colorado. He already traded for Ross Colton earlier this month, so there’s a clear pattern forming. MacFarland spent years in the Avalanche front office before taking over in Nashville.

Drury’s Roundabout Path to the NHL

Drury was a second-round pick by Carolina in 2018 out of Harvard. He bounced between the Hurricanes and their AHL affiliate in Chicago for a couple seasons before cracking the NHL full-time in 2023-24. Then came the big deadline deal in 2025. Carolina shipped him to Colorado as part of that massive three-team trade that involved Mikko Rantanen going to the Hurricanes and Taylor Hall ending up with the Blackhawks. Drury was a secondary piece in that trade but he settled in with the Avalanche.

He played 33 games for Colorado after the trade and put up five goals and four assists. Then he added one goal and one assist in their first-round playoff loss to Dallas.

This season was his first full year in an Avalanche jersey. He played all 82 games, scoring 10 goals with 17 assists. In the playoffs he had three goals and two assists as Colorado made it all the way to the Western Conference Final before getting knocked out.

For his career, Drury has 30 goals and 52 assists in 268 games. He turns 26 in September. He’s headed for restricted free agency on July 1, so Nashville will need to get a new deal done if they plan on keeping him around long-term.

MacFarland clearly likes what Drury brings to the table. A versatile forward who kills penalties and can slide up and down the lineup. Not a flashy player but the kind a coach trusts in tight moments. Whether he sticks with the Predators beyond this season depends on what happens in contract talks this summer.