Matt Duchene Shares Emotional Story of Being Bought Out by the Nashville Predators
PUBLICATION
Tom Banks
December 17, 2024 (3:10 PM)
Matt Duchene has been red-hot for the Stars this season, and now he's shared the emotional story of him finding out he was bought out by the Nashville Predators.
The Dallas Stars have been very happy with Matt Duchene's production over the last two seasons, with the former No. 3 overall draft pick tallying 95 points in 110 games over that time.
He currently leads the team in scoring, and now the 33-year-old has joined the Spittin' Chiclets podcast, during which time he told the story of his shocking buyout from the Nashville Predators last June.
It was 11:25, my wife came up, I had just gotten out of the shower and was literally drying my hair off. She came up crying and told me that my agent had texted me and what was going on.
I've never had anyone close to me pass away, but that was the feeling right away, I was just devastated. I'd been asked like "Hey, we're going to go in a different direction now, we need you to buy into this" and I was like "Heck yeah, I'm in, whatever we need to do".
I was blindsided because then 35 minutes later I'm on waivers for buyout and I'm like "What is happening?" I never thought of it as an indictment on my playing ability, and I never doubted that, but you do at the same time, right? Because I literally just got paid to go away.
It's easy to see why this was so hard on Duchene because his final campaign in Nashville saw him put up a solid 56 points in 71 games played, but with the team landing Ryan O'Reilly in free agency, they wanted to go in a different direction.
While it's now 18 months later, it's clear that Duchene will be happy with how things have gone, as Nashville currently sits dead last in the Western Conference, but with the 33-year-old veteran now leading a star-laden Dallas team that is Stanley Cup hopefuls, his career has panned out very well.
POLL |
Should the Nashville Predators regret waiving Matt Duchene? |
Yes | 89 | 67.9 % |
No | 42 | 32.1 % |
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