Im gonna ask the question: Is Nashville elite now?

[The Nuge]

I just don’t see it. Obviously they have elite goaltending in Saros, and Josi is still elite, but the rest of the defense isn’t anything special, and the bottom 6 isn’t great with guys like Jankowski and McCarron. The top 6 is solid, but still doesn’t stack up compared to the powerhouses of the West

 

[BKarchitect]

I just don’t see it. Obviously they have elite goaltending in Saros, and Josi is still elite, but the rest of the defense isn’t anything special, and the bottom 6 isn’t great with guys like Jankowski and McCarron. The top 6 is solid, but still doesn’t stack up compared to the powerhouses of the West

I think you’re underrating the contributions of their bottom six guys. A ton of people are saying they are relying on “name brands” past their primes in the top six but dismissing the depth because the “name brands” either aren’t there or have a negative connotation.

McCarron and Jankowski were very good last year. Their past lives as first round busts are irrelevant…they’ve put in the work and absolutely are solid players. Sissons is an elite 3C. Evangelista as a third line winger? If this kid were on Toronto or Edmonton, we wouldn’t hear the end of the hyping over what he came in and did last season as a rookie and what his potential is. Smith is a terrific hard-nosed 4th liner. Tomasino doesn’t even have a place and guys like ZLH and Svechkov would be competing for spots on any number of contending teams.

Depth will be their calling card this year.

 

[BKarchitect]

From the outside looking in, they seem like a frustrating team to follow. I’ve looked through their last four seasons and one thing they are consistent at is never putting together two halves of the same season at a high level.

Some of these offseason moves have been nice, but something about them makes me think they’ll tread water and end up in about the same position as they have been for awhile, i.e. bottom 2 seed. Saros needs to be better and their 30+ crowd needs to remain healthy.

I just throughly disagree. If they had signed Saros and done nothing else…yes…that would be purgatory. If they had dealt all their top prospects to go “all in” with this group…yes, that would seem short-sighted.

But it seems to me they’ve actually done the opposite and chosen to be relevant while keeping every single one of their top prospects from an impressive AHL and prospect system. This isn’t a Calgary part two. They kept every single main asset…ZLH, Svechkov, Askarov, Kemell, Molendyk, Ufko, Wood, Surin, etc. Hell they even still have Glass and Tomasino who might have some residual value as former high end prospects. And they addd a two-way, #2 defenseman in his prime who has only gotten better every year and two extremely crafty 40 goal scorers to a team that was already pretty good and a playoff team even in a down year for their superstar goalie.

I’d say with all the ammo they’ve stockpiled - if they are looking strong next March, they can add greatly at the deadline without destroying their system.

 

[Video Nasty]

I just throughly disagree. If they had signed Saros and done nothing else…yes…that would be purgatory. If they had dealt all their top prospects to go “all in” with this group…yes, that would seem short-sighted.

But it seems to me they’ve actually done the opposite and chosen to be relevant while keeping every single one of their top prospects from an impressive AHL and prospect system. This isn’t a Calgary part two. They kept every single main asset…ZLH, Svechkov, Askarov, Kemell, Molendyk, Ufko, Wood, Surin, etc. Hell they even still have Glass and Tomasino who might have some residual value as former high end prospects. And they addd a two-way, #2 defenseman in his prime who has only gotten better every year and two extremely crafty 40 goal scorers to a team that was already pretty good and a playoff team even in a down year for their superstar goalie.

I’d say with all the ammo they’ve stockpiled - if they are looking strong next March, they can add greatly at the deadline without destroying their system.

I think I’m approaching it from the overarching seen too many sports over too much time angle that there’s inevitably going to be some injuries, some are going to underperform, and an exciting look at the team on paper more often than not ends up with the newest iteration doing about the same; a balancing out if you will.

I appreciate your in-depth analysis. Hope it all pans out for them, until they run into the Oilers at least.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Nyquist isn't scoring 70 points again, no reason to think Forsberg will have a big year, their defense is...fine?

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

I think that team will be a contender honestly. People don't understand how stable their foundation is now.

 

[Bounces R Way]

They added 95G and 197P to a roster that made the playoffs in the toughest division in hockey.
They subtracted 35 year old Ryan McDonagh, a washed up Tyson Barrie, and whatever Yakov Trenin does.

That's a major upgrade and this thread is underrating them. I dunno what elite really means here and you always need to see how the mix works out but I'd definitely put them into the contender category.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

They added 95G and 197P to a roster that made the playoffs in the toughest division in hockey.
They subtracted 35 year old Ryan McDonagh, a washed up Tyson Barrie, and whatever Yakov Trenin does.

That's a major upgrade and this thread is underrating them. I dunno what elite really means here and you always need to see how the mix works out but I'd definitely put them into the contender category.

I think you know what elite is. Contender is a good word too.

 

[thesandman77]

Nah

 

[Crow]

I consider them a contender.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

I think you’re underrating the contributions of their bottom six guys. A ton of people are saying they are relying on “name brands” past their primes in the top six but dismissing the depth because the “name brands” either aren’t there or have a negative connotation.

McCarron and Jankowski were very good last year. Their past lives as first round busts are irrelevant…they’ve put in the work and absolutely are solid players. Sissons is an elite 3C. Evangelista as a third line winger? If this kid were on Toronto or Edmonton, we wouldn’t hear the end of the hyping over what he came in and did last season as a rookie and what his potential is. Smith is a terrific hard-nosed 4th liner. Tomasino doesn’t even have a place and guys like ZLH and Svechkov would be competing for spots on any number of contending teams.

Depth will be their calling card this year.

That's a stretch

 

[byrath]

View attachment 900365
View attachment 900366

Looks average to slightly above average at each position. Should make the playoffs with their usual great goaltending but they'll likely be first-round underdogs. Might be below average at center actually but I'll give ROR and Novak a lot of credit for being good defensively

 

[BLNY]

It's certainly A question. I don't know if it's THE question.

 

[Faceboner]

They'll be elite after deadline if they are in the race they need an upgrade on 3lw and 3lhd and maybe a 2c to bump Novak into a 3c matchup role

 

[K Fleur]

They’re a good team.

Can’t see them beating McDavid in a playoff series. They could beat the Oilers though.

 

[JunkyardKangaroo]

It will depend on everyone staying healthy, but they could be a dark horse. Defense group is also kind of underwhelming.

 

[PredsV82]

It will be like most Preds teams, good enough to make the playoffs, and once there will go as far as our goaltending can carry us. We just should have a more reliable offense so Saros wont have to shut teams out for us to win

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Depends what you mean by elite. 9 teams in the League were inside 10 points this past season, Oilers being the #9. The year before, below Bostons anomaly record it was 10 teams inside 10 points.

Can the Predators be in that group? Yes they can.

Whether they're 'elite' in terms of contenders, we can only find out in the playoffs and there's a lot of time between now and then, including the trade deadline.

Regular season wagon? I have my doubts, but maybe? Even if they are, they won't be more than a handful of points ahead of a lot of teams.

They're a good team, but there's not much separating a lot of teams. Mostly it just comes down to what type of season they're having, how the new look comes together, whether or not any individual players have career years and how they're able to avoid injuries.

 

[triggrman]

They had a top 10 scoring team last season and added 2 40 goal guys and one of the better 5:5 scoring defensemen in the game to that.

Are the scores older? Yes. But they don’t need to be 40 goal scores, even at 30 goals each it makes the team way better.

 

[SUX2BU]

 

[BonMorrison]

Preds fan saying low end cup contender. Not even close to elite though. Stamkos and Marchessault are exciting additions but are also old and gonna be declining as early as next year (Stamkos already is). The defense is good but not great, Josi can only do so much and is getting older. Skjei a good addition but after that it is fairly mid. Saros obviously great but I feel like we still haven't seen him steal a series yet. It would take a lot to go right for them to win a cup (as it would for any team), I see them at least getting to the second round next year.

 

[Madap]

Looking at the roster, not as good as I originally thought they were after their signings.

However a lot of the important pieces are there. So they are definitely in a good spot to assess their roster throughout the season and then add at the deadline. I think they very well could be competing for the cup as long as their stars don’t regress for whatever reason.

 

[herzausstein]

Elite? No
Better than last year? Yes

That center depth will likely continue to keep them from being elite. The wings and defense will help to cover that deficiency some but having a 60 point center as your #1 is gonna keep you from being considered elite. RoR coming off a near career year was still in the bottom 3rd for NHL center production last season and calling the 25-30 area bottom 3rd is actually being generous...

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

They added 95G and 197P to a roster that made the playoffs in the toughest division in hockey.
They subtracted 35 year old Ryan McDonagh, a washed up Tyson Barrie, and whatever Yakov Trenin does.

That's a major upgrade and this thread is underrating them. I dunno what elite really means here and you always need to see how the mix works out but I'd definitely put them into the contender category.

Just feel like because it's not a "flashy" group like COL or EDM that they're being undersold significantly in this thread. Not sure what elite is, but I'd definitely put them in the top tier with COL/DAL in the Central.

Just funny to me that they're "not COL" is seen as a negative. If you combined the teams and ranked the players, COL would obviously have the top 3 players, but I'd bet 8 of the next 10 would be NASH players.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Tommy Novak at 2C, watch out now