The Nashville Predators were guided by the steady hand of GM David Poile for 25 years. After a deadline sell off during his final season at the helm and his retirement following the 2022-2023 season, Barry Trotz took over with a young roster in hand. Where will take the Predators?
Roster Ruminations
NHL Roster
The Predators have been one of the more intriguing success stories of the 2023-2024 season. Former Preds player Andrew Brunnette returned to the Music City as head coach last summer and he’s led a plucky young group to a wildcard playoff berth. It looks like a similar story could play out next season based on the current model projection as the Predators are predicted to be roughly league average again.
Salary Cap Management
While the Predators have been a great story on the ice this season, the situation on their cap sheet isn’t quite as rosy. With buyout penalties for Matt Duchene and Kyle Turris on the books alongside retained salary from the Ryan Johansen and Mattias Ekholm trades, the Predators have significantly reduced their available cap space for the next few seasons. Realistically, it will be very difficult to climb into a contender tier until most of that dead cap comes off the books. They do have about 20% of their cap space available for next season though, so addressing their RFAs and adding enough to the roster to stay competitive seems quite plausible.
Future Assets
David Poile built up quite a stockpile of future assets in his final seasons as GM, leaving Barry Trotz with a healthy prospect pipeline to work from. Hockey Prospecting ranks the Predators 16th in the NHL for their prospect pool, which includes a few exciting prospects like Joakim Kemell, Ryan Ufko, Matthew Wood and Yaroslav Askarov. They have a lot of potential in the next three drafts as well, with a draft success probability profile that sits well above baseline, primarily due to the eight picks they’ve amassed in rounds 2 through 4 of the 2024 draft.
What’s Next?
The Predators young players have begun to make an impact at the NHL level, helping fuel their success this season. Luke Evangelista and Philip Tomasino, both 22, are at the leading edge of a cohort that the Predators should focus on building to become their core for the foreseeable future. The Predators have some good prospects coming in behind them and their mittful of 2024 draft picks should represent the back end of the incoming group. This group will start to reach their prime in 2-3 years, just as the Predators dead cap situation starts to resolve.
A young roster can benefit from the mentorship of more experienced NHLers and there’s no reason to think that some of Nashville current core can’t continue to be a part of the long term solution. Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi and Juuse Saros are legitimate stars and could be used to help usher in the next era for the Predators. They’ll see some natural decline in their impact in their 30s, but they’re good enough players that they should still be able to contribute if their roles are gradually reduced as the young cohort begins to find it’s full footing in the NHL.
While the younger cohort is nipping at the NHL, the Predators do still have a fair number of older players on the current roster. That’s an area where they can find some assets to move in order to help bolster the younger incoming group. Ryan O’Reilly has had a great season and might be enticing for contending teams, although with 4 years left on his deal he may be better suited as a veteran mentor for another season or two. There are other options that may be easier to move in the short term like Gus Nyquist and Ryan McDonagh. They’re both 34 with one year left on their deals and could be useful for current contenders. Whether they’re offseason or deadline moves next season, the Predators could benefit by turning some of their older players into younger assets that better fit their contention timeline.
