The Nashville Predators acquired defenseman Nicolas Hague in a three-player trade that sent center Colton Sissons and defenseman Jeremy Lauzon to the Vegas Golden Knights, both teams announced Monday.
In completing the trade, the Predators signed Hague — a pending restricted free agent — to a four-year $22 million contract. Nashville also acquired a third-round pick in the 2027 draft, which would turn into a second-round pick should Vegas advance to the Western Conference finals in the 2026 playoffs.
Also part of the trade has the Predators retaining half of Sissons' salary. He is due to make $2.86 million in the final year of his seven-year contract.
The retooling Predators benefit by adding a hard-hitting, 6-foot-6 player to their blue line on a team that's missed the playoffs for the second time in two years.
The Golden Knights, essentially freed up salary cap space by removing the uncertainty of what they stood in having to pay Hague, while adding two established players at a low rate and entering the final years of their respective contracts. The trade improves the team's salary-cap position to add high-priced talent as the NHL's free agency period opening on Tuesday.
Vegas has been mentioned as a potential landing spot for Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner, who is regarded as the top free agent set to enter the market.
The 26-year-old Hague is a defensive-minded player who had five goals and 12 points in 68 games last season. Overall, he has 20 goals and 83 points in 364 career games over six NHL seasons in Vegas.
“Nicolas’ profile as a defenseman is one that teams around the NHL covet – big and physical with strong skating ability,” Predators general manager Barry Trotz said. “By signing him for four years, he will play an integral role in shaping our blueline not only now, but in the future.”
Another objective for Trotz was a focus on getting younger following a draft in which the Predators had three first-round selections and five of their seven overall picks in the first two rounds. Nashville opened the draft by selecting OHL center Brady Martin at No. 5.
The 31-year-old Sissons leaves Nashville after spending his entire 11-season career with the Predators. He had seven goals and 21 points in 72 games last year, and has 95 goals and 221 points in 691 career outings.
Lauzon, 28, represents a $2 million cap hit. He has seven seasons of NHL experience and was limited to an assist in 28 games last year before sustaining a season-ending lower body injury.
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FILE - Nashville Predators defenseman Jeremy Lauzon (3) plays during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, on Dec. 19, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
FILE - Nashville Predators center Colton Sissons (10) plays during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Ottawa Senators, on Feb. 3, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
FILE - Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Nicolas Hague (14) plays against the Nashville Predators during the second period of an NHL hockey game on March 29, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
New films by Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski, Japanese writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Spain’s Pedro Almodovar will premiere at the 79th Cannes Film Festival next month.
Organizers for the South of France festival, which runs May 12-23, laid out a lineup heavy on big-name international auteurs at a news conference Thursday in Paris.
Cannes’ most sought-after slots are in its competition lineup. This year, 21 films will vie for the Palme d’Or. That includes “Fatherland,” a Cold War drama starring Sandra Hüller by Pawlikowski (“Ida,” “Cold War” ); “Sudden,” the French language debut for Hamaguchi ( “Drive My Car” ); and Almodovar’s “Bitter Christmas.”
Cannes is so far light on Hollywood releases and American filmmakers. One exception in competition is Ira Sachs' “The Man I Love,” a New York tale starring Rami Malek set during the 1980s AIDS crisis. In the Un Certain Regard sidebar, Jane Schoenbrun will unveil their follow-up to 2014’s “I Saw the TV Glow”: “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” about the making of a slasher movie. It stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.
A number of former Palme winners are in the mix. That includes Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu’s Norway-set “Fjord,” starring the recently Oscar-nominated Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan. Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” won the Palme in 2007.
Also returning is Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose 2018 drama “Shoplifters” won the Palme. He’ll debut the sci-fi “Sheep in the Box,” about a grieving couple in the near future who bring home a humanoid boy as their son.
The specialty distributor Neon has already boarded “Fjord,” “Sheep in the Box” and “Sudden,” giving it a chance to extend its historic record of six Palme winners in a row. Last year, the Neon release “It Was Just an Accident,” by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, won the Palme.
Neon is also behind an out of competition selection in “Her Private Hell” by Nicolas Winding Refn, the “Drive” filmmaker. A thriller starring Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton, it's Refn's first feature film since 2016's “The Neon Demon.”
The Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev is also back in the Cannes competition lineup with “Minotaur.” Zvyagintsev's last two films, “Loveless” and “Leviathan,” both debuted at Cannes and went on to land Oscar nominations.
Other competition entries include films by Asghar Farhadi (“Parallel Stories”), Lukas Dhont (“Coward”) and Lazlo Nemes (“Moulin”).
Thierry Fremaux, Cannes’ artistic director, announced the selections in a news conference alongside festival president Iris Knobloch. Fremaux said that 2,541 feature films were submitted for inclusion.
“In this moment, bringing together films and artists from around the world is not a luxury, it’s a necessity," Knobloch said. "Because when the world darkens, we lose our bearings. Showcasing films from all horizons is not a trivial act. It is defending what is most precious to humanity, its ability to dream and think freely.”
Cannes is coming off a 2025 festival that produced a number of Oscar contenders, including two best-picture nominees in Joachim Tier’s “Sentimental Value” and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent.” This year’s Cannes appears well positioned to continue the festival’s stature as the global launching pad of many of the year’s best international films, some of which are bound to show up at next year’s Oscars.
But Hollywood studios appear to be a no-show. Fremaux has said not to expect red carpet premieres like “Top Gun: Maverick” or “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” — both of which made splashy premieres in recent years. This year, Cannes announced ahead of the Paris news conference that John Travolta's directorial debut “Propeller One-Way Night Coach” will debut in the Cannes Premiere section.
“The United States will be present, but the studios will be a bit less so,” Fremaux said. “It’s important to know that when studios are less present at Cannes, it means they are generally less present with the type of cinema that used to allow them to thrive.”
Two prominent American directors will debut documentaries in special screenings: Steven Soderbergh with “John Lennon: The Last Interview” and Ron Howard with “Avedon,” about the photographer Richard Avedon.
Opening the festival, out of competition, is the 1920s French film “The Electric Kiss.” Cannes requires its opening movie to release the same week in French cinemas. And entry to its prestigious competition lineup requires theatrical distribution, a stipulation that — given France’s laws guarding theatrical windows — has excluded Netflix movies and other streaming titles since 2017.
This year, the Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook will preside over the nine-member jury that will decide the Palme. And a pair of honorary Palmes will be handed out, to Barbra Streisand and to Peter Jackson.
Cannes film festival president Iris Knobloch, right, and Cannes film festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux attend a press conference to announce the International Cannes film festival line up for the upcoming 79th edition, Thursday, April 9, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Cannes film festival president Iris Knobloch, right, and Cannes film festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux attend a press conference to announce the International Cannes film festival line up for the upcoming 79th edition, Thursday, April 9, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Cannes film festival president Iris Knobloch, right, and Cannes film festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux pose after a press conference to announce the International Cannes film festival line up for the upcoming 79th edition, Thursday, April 9, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
