Nashville Predators Still Sorting Out the Bottom Six

Head coach Andrew Brunette has found successful combinations for two forward lines but is still looking for the right depth combinations.

One of the many questions heading into training camp was what forward combinations new head coach Andrew Brunette would come up with from a very different Predators roster. With the departure of Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene and the addition of Ryan O'Reilly and Gus Nyquist roster construction was a hot topic during the preseason. 

It became evident in camp there were some combinations that had chemistry. O'Reilly and Filip Forberg and Nyquist and Cody Glass showed real promise as they practiced together. With Glass missing the western road trip with injury, Nyquist has jumped up to play on the top line with O'Reilly and Forsberg. The "kid line" of Kiefer Sherwood, Tommy Novak, and Luke Evangelista has found their groove as well, combining for nine goals and eleven assists in the first eleven games. 

Colton Sissons and Yakov Trenin have been playing together in several games this season, and the two have chemistry going all the way back to the "Herd Line" days of Sissons, Trenin, and Mathieu Olivier or Tanner Jeannot. How the rest of the bottom six sort out is still very much a work in progress for Andrew Brunette. 

 Nashville's Senior Content Manager and Beat Reporter Emma Lingan reported yesterday that Juuso Pärssinen was working with Colton Sissons and Yakov Trenin in practice while Cole Smith, Liam Foudy, and Michael McCarron skated together. 

It's been a complicated start to the season for players like McCarron, Smith, and Pärssinen. Juuso Pärssinen has played top line minutes with Ryan O'Reilly and FIlip Forsberg but was moved to the fourth line with his minutes nearly cut in half after the October 24 game against the Vancouver Canucks. Pärssinen is one of the young players who the Predators want to give plenty of opportunity to but don't want to rush his development in too big a role too soon. 

Cole Smith is a player who has proven he can slot in most anywhere in the line up and give head coach Andrew Brunette a solid performance. He two goal game against the New York Rangers was a highlight in the first month, but Smith is someone who retrieves pucks, battles hard, and adds a physical element to any line he plays with. His flexibility with a variety of line mates and penalty killing minutes make him a valuable piece on the roster. 

The acquisitions of Samuel Fagemo and Liam Foudy have given Brunette a deeper pool of talent to draw from, but evaluating two more players in game scenarios has made for a crowded bottom six. Fagemo scored one power play goal in his four games while Liam Foudy has tried to showcase his speed in his five appearances. The late training camp/early season additions have affected other players' ice time like Michael McCarron and Phil Tomasino. 

McCarron and Tomasino are two very different players who find themselves in similar situations. More than just six inches of height and 50 pounds of muscle differentiate these two who play contrasting styles. McCarron is a big physical presence, an energy player who isn't afraid to change the temperature of a game by dropping the gloves. His offensive contribution comes from cleaning up pucks and clearing space in front of the net. Conversely, Tomasino's game is more about playmaking and skilled puck handling, but the 22-year-old has struggled this season to showcase his skill set in just six of eleven games so far. 

It is hard to look at a pool of young talent as a bad thing for any team and for a Nashville Predators team working their way into a reset, having plenty of depth players already in Nashville to evaluate is a gift. Sorting out which players have chemistry, whose game best compliments his line mates, and what players can contribute a little extra on special teams makes the process more complicated right now. It is going to take time and patience for Andrew Brunette to have the full picture of what he wants when it comes to forward depth this season.