The Nashville Predators keep adding to the brain trust around Chris MacFarland, and the latest moves bring in two more familiar names: Vukie Mpofu and Dawson Sprigings.
Mpofu has been hired as Assistant General Manager, while Sprigings will serve as Assistant to the General Manager. They join Rob Blake, Executive V.P. of Hockey Ops., and Jamie Langenbrunner, Special Assistant to the General Manager, in the growing group of hires made under MacFarland’s control of the organization.
Mpofu arrives after three seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he worked as Director of Hockey Ops. and Legal Affairs. His responsibilities in Pittsburgh included player contract negotiations, CBA and salary cap compliances, along with work with the club’s hockey research and development department.
Before that, Mpofu spent 2021-23 with the Los Angeles Kings as Manager of Hockey Ops. and Legal Affairs, where he worked with then-Kings general manager Blake. MacFarland made clear he sees Mpofu as a major addition.
"We are very pleased that Vukie has elected to join the Predators hockey operations staff as Assistant General Manager,” MacFarland said in a press release. “He is one of the great young minds in the game today, and we are confident he’ll be a great fit with the rest of our management team as we look to build a winning franchise in Nashville."
Sprigings also comes from a familiar pipeline. He previously served as Associate Director of Analytics and Lead Data Scientist for MacFarland’s former club, the Colorado Avalanche. He spent seven years with Colorado, including five years in the associate director role, and worked with MacFarland in the analytics department during a stretch that included the Stanley Cup in 2022 and the President’s Trophy last season.
MacFarland said Sprigings will have a wide-ranging role.
"We are pleased to announce Dawson has decided to join our hockey operations department as Assistant to the General Manager,” MacFarland said in a press release. “He will be a key staff addition and will help us in many areas, including, but not limited to, analytics, team-building strategy and some scouting work. I have first-hand knowledge of the type of work Dawson can produce, and he will be a valuable asset to the Predators."
With these additions, MacFarland continues building out a front office that is getting crowded fast - and, from the looks of it, increasingly loaded with people he trusts.
In Other News...
Predators Add Vukie Mpofu As Front Office Vision Takes Shape
The Predators have added another layer to their front office, hiring Vukie Mpofu as assistant general manager as the organization continues to shape its hockey operations structure. Mpofu arrives after working with the Pittsburgh Penguins and will help general manager Chris MacFarland in a range of areas, giving Nashville another experienced voice in the room as it builds out its decision-making group.
Mpofus path to Nashville also came with the usual complications of bringing in a front office executive from another club, and the move reflects how carefully the Predators are assembling this part of the organization. He spent the past three seasons in Pittsburgh as director of hockey operations and legal affairs under Kyle Dubas, and he said he and his wife are thrilled to join a franchise he described as world-class with a promising future. [Read more 🡒]