The Nashville Predators looked to be starting a rebuild at the NHL trade deadline, but Adam Proteau writes they took the wrong direction in free agency.
We’re continuing on with THN.com’s “off-season outlook” series, in which we focus on every NHL team’s recent season and the organization’s strengths and weaknesses approaching next season. We’ve been examining teams in alphabetical order, and today, we’re turning our attention to the Nashville Predators.
2022-23 Grade: C
Biggest Positive Heading Into The Off-Season
Under new GM Barry Trotz, the Predators have shown they’re intent on getting back into the playoffs after missing out on the post-season for the first time since 2013-14.
Although we’re skeptical they can get back to the playoffs after a slew of signings and transactions this off-season, it’s a positive that Trotz chose to make significant change to the roster.
Trading star forward Ryan Johansen to Colorado and buying out the contract of winger Matt Duchene served notice a new era was beginning in Nashville.
However, rather than start on a full rebuild of the lineup, Trotz spent much of his salary cap space on a trio of veteran UFAs: center Ryan O’Reilly, winger Gustav Nyquist and defenseman Luke Schenn all signed with the Preds on the first day of unrestricted free agency, putting more grit and experience into the organization.
That’s all well and good, and it’s clearly possible Nashville could sneak into the playoffs via a wild-card berth. It’s also possible the Predators finish fifth in the Central Division for a second consecutive season and once again wind up on the outside of the post-season looking in.
Even though there are new faces all around – including new coach Andrew Brunette – our sense is the Preds’ results could end up very similar to this past season’s disappointing showing.
Biggest Need Heading Into the Off-Season
The main need for the Predators entering the off-season is the need for generational talent up front.
Even with the additions of Nyquist and O’Reilly and returning star Filip Forsberg, the Preds simply do not have the elite talent that many, if not most, teams lean on to get them into the playoffs and on a deep run once they get there. It would have been easier to address this need if Trotz tore down the roster and inserted nothing but young players onto the team, but as it stands, they really need to hope they stay healthy in 2023-24.
That was a problem for many of their players last season. O’Reilly, Forsberg and projected first-line winger Luke Evangelista combined to play in only 127 games last year, and if you remove Evangelista and substitute Nyquist, they combined to play 154 games. Not ideal.
Now that they’ve charted a course trying to get back into the playoffs this coming season, the Preds will need more proven performers than they have at present. Their top 12 forwards are a dog’s breakfast of past accomplishment and future promise, and at a time when the Central is likely going to be even more competitive than it was in 2022-23, Nashville doesn’t have enough horses to succeed.
Bottom Line For Nashville This Off-Season
We’ve been saying it for a while now, but the Predators are one of the NHL’s “mushy middle” teams. They are too good to drop to the bottom of the league and draft a cornerstone talent and too subpar to go on a multi-series playoff run if they did manage to qualify for the post-season.
Trotz came into his new role with all kinds of cachet to embark on a painful but necessary rebuild, and it’s a major letdown to see him try and accelerate the process by gambling on a few new veterans. There was no need to do that. It’s the type of move we saw in recent years in places like Philadelphia, and only the outcry of fans – and the wakeup call to a new management team – caused the Flyers to stop trying a retool on the fly and take the more proven approach to building a long-term winner.
That process could’ve started in earnest in Nashville this spring – and we were hopeful for Preds fans that was going to happen when they parted ways with Johansen and Duchene – but now, the Predators are locked into another season of running as fast as they can to barely keep pace with legitimate Cup contenders.
There’s no extra gear for this team to shift into. That’s a shame because Nashville fans deserve to have generational talents to cheer for. They’re not going to get any by going the route they’ve chosen this summer.