Scouting the Division: Nashville Predators
We’re looking around the division and see what the Hawks’ competition has done since the 2021 season ended. Thus far, we have broken down the new, the gone and the changes with the Arizona Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild.
Now, let’s turn our attention to what’s going on with the Nashville Predators.
- Expansion Draft: Calle Jarnkrok
- Key Losses: Pekka Rinne, Viktor Arvidsson, Ryan Ellis, Erik Haula, Erik Gudbranson, Brad Richardson
- Key Additions: David Rittich, Philippe Myers, Cody Glass
- 2021-22 Cap Space: $12,733,857
(per CapFriendly)
Departures
The list of significant departures is long in Nashville. They traded Arvidsson to LA and Ellis to Philly. Rinne retired. And the loss of Jarnkrok in the expansion draft hurts as well. Haula, Gudbranson and Richardson leaving leaves more holes the Preds will need to fill somehow. They still have some cap space to play with, but they have a few RFAs – notably Eeli Tolvanen – still on the table to deal with as well.
Additions
Nashville added Myers and Nolan Patrick in the trade from Philadelphia but Patrick was moved to Vegas. Rittich has one year remaining on his deal and will serve as the backup to Juuse Saros. Glass is a familiar name. These are nice players but none of them fills the holes left with the departures.
What Does It Mean?
This isn’t the same look and feel in Nashville, and the rebuild may only be in its early stages. Filip Forsberg and Mattias Ekholm headline a list of UFAs hitting next summer that could be expensive for the Predators. Rinne retiring wasn’t a shock and he wasn’t the same player he was a decade ago, but he was one of the faces of the franchise. Even when Ryan Suter and Shea Weber left, Rinne was there.
Agree Predsin transition year, how far the rebuild goes remains to be seen if they want to look for the bottom over next few years.
They still have Josi who is one of the top d-men in the league and they seem to always have a productive pipeline of d-men coming up. They made a push last season after seemingly throwing in the towel at the TDL that was pretty impressive. Their defense will still probably be pretty good even after losing Ellis. For them to be more that a middling team they need Johansen to finally be the guy they thought they were getting when they traded Seth for him.
I just hope the Hawks finish ahead of them. That playoff sweep a few years ago still leaves a bad taste.
That playoff sweep by Nashville was 4 years ago, we haven’t done squat since and if we do finish lower than Nashville this year I wonder what people will say about the job that StanBo has done??
Well we know what some people will say and they aren’t waiting to see next season results because they’ve already been saying it on a non-stop loop.
lol
Well Ebony, I’m not the one saying they’ll finish anywhere from 2nd to 7th in the division. And they will have to put all those pieces together on the fly and then there’s that little problem of the defensive philosophy they continue to employ and who’s teaching it. So how long would you give them to see if they have figured it out before its finally decided that Kid Coach isn’t the guy to do it??? If that’s the case then you don’t allow StanBo to get ANOTHER chance of finding a coach that could do it.