Speculation: Nashville plan moving forward

[Kiseo]

Short term
- Determine team identity and run with it. Run and gun? Neutral zone trap? Crowd the net on offense? Clear the crease on defense? Right now, we have no identity and we are not hard to play against. What is Predators hockey? Nobody knows anymore.
- Build for a semblance of an entertaining hockey team next year and play the kids. Play em not to embrace the tank but to see what they got and give them some confidence. Seeing their teammates either get waived or traded for peanuts can’t feel good. I’d be tickled if one of our young players gets 20 points in our last 30 games down the stretch.
- Bring back “Ready to Go” by Republica as our intro song.

- long term
It’s hard for me to see a viable long term plan with current coaching staff but here goes:
This current system is not working. Our passing is off, our shooting % is at a historical franchise low, defensive lapses, not enough hitting, etc.
Either the system is never meant to work or we don’t have the players to work it.
Since many of our core players are signed long term (with NTC), implement a different system that matches the players skill set.
- Bring back “Ready to Go” by Republica as our intro song.

 

[adsfan]

Short term. Bring in a coach that can run an aged, veteran roster and get the most out of them as well as integrate a few young players.

Long term. Hope that Trotz figures out how to be a GM or go get one of Briaebois, Zito or McCrimmon’s right hand guys to run this franchise, clear out all the nepotism in the front office, steal the scouting department from Dallas, find the next Cooper, Maurice or DeBoer to coach the team.

DeBoer used to play in Milwaukee!

 

[GeauxPreds1]

Plan? What's that? I just kinda figured Trotz is throwing darts at a dart board at this point and apparently firing Burnette is a very small bullseye

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

...apparently firing Burnette is a very small bullseye

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Plan? What's that? I just kinda figured Trotz is throwing darts at a dart board at this point and apparently firing Burnette is a very small bullseye

The scary thing to me is that Trotz didn't seem to believe in his own plan. He traded and bought out veterans and accumulated draft picks, talked at length about bringing in prospects and providing them opportunities, while supporting them with the right environment of veteran serial winners to help guide them along the way. Then he basically completely blew that up, relegating and dismissing all the youth while leaning entirely on the veterans. Or you can say Brunette did that, but ultimately Trotz allowed him to, and continues to allow him to.

It's just shocking to me that he had the gall to sell his original plan, only to backtrack so completely on it in such a short period of time. I'm confident he'd choose to describe things a different way, and claim that the young players simply weren't good enough, or weren't ready, etc. But the thing is, we've seen many of them show readiness in previous seasons here already, and we've seen some of them have some successes in their new homes. We've also seen the veterans stumble dramatically, leading us into 30th place in the league at the same time.

So one thing's for sure, Trotz will have a lot of difficulty in selling any future "plans" he comes up with to us. He has lost all credibility at this point. I suspect he'll be around for several more years, so he'll have an opportunity to win it back. But it's going to take time.

 

[Armourboy]

Trotz never liked playing young guys so it's not all on Brunette. No doubt in my mind he keeps signing Vets past their prime and watching our talent go play somewhere else.

 

[nullednumbed]

Trotz never liked playing young guys so it's not all on Brunette. No doubt in my mind he keeps signing Vets past their prime and watching our talent go play somewhere else.

It's fun to go look at the pending UFA list for this summer, sort by age, and see all of the players over 35 Trotz is going to have to choose from when he signs one or seven of them.

 

[BigFatCat999]

What would I do? And please note I’m currently on the steroid PREDnisone. Which is watered down chemo mixed with cocaine and steroids. I can’t sleep. I want to either vomit or be the source of the Brown Nile. I am also in the mood to name peoples bones as I break them.


Let’s start with roster makeup:

Goalies; re-sign them all, keep Saros unless a Godfather deal comes. Like “they gave that and that!”

Please note if the predators do trade sorrows and they decide to eat 50% of his current contract, it would only be for one year they would not be eating the extension

Defense: a lot decisions after to be made. My hope is that the team has a deal already made for Schenn freeing a roster spot to try out the UFA’s in Milwaukee. That is Del Gaizo, Livingstone, Friedman, and Englund. If they are better than Lauzon, trade him or if he’s done for the season IR him. I wanna ask Milwaukee fans if any of the four above are wanted in Milwaukee above others. If so, then we have to consider not trading them. The main thing is they’re all young defensive free agents. Also, Nashville has to make room for Molendyk and Gibson.

As Forwords, I don’t think it’s gonna be as bad as we think. I don’t have time to go into detail about them because I’m gonna try and go to bed.

 

[101st_fan]

We haven't had a coherent plan for the past few seasons .... why start now? Trotz/Bruno is just bewildering. Signing talent is a great start point but without a framework to utilize that talent the signings become a waste. We have to defensive plan and the players put in night after night aren't a fit for an up tempo style .... offensive is blindly charge in with no clue where anyone will be to sustain pressure ... the goalies get hung out on odd man rush after odd man rush.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

This is a thread to pull together ideas how to fix Smashville. I'm not talking about specific trades etc/but themes to fix the organization. My hope is to combine the points and send them to the organization. Even if it doesn't get a reply, my hope is to do what we can as fans to send a message.

1. Fix the in arena experience. Gnash is almost invisible, the music is questionable and where is crazy Kyle? Revamp the in arena experience to encourage fan engagement/entertainment. You have to do this if the on ice product stinks. Bring back the Preds blimp or the all you can eat fan zone.

Tap some very loyal fans to start new cheers similar to Nashville SC. You have to do something to get the arena experience popping again. Right now it's a morgue. Interview fans and see what they want.

2. Remove Brunette as coach. We think Bruno could be a good coach, we think Bruno is a bad coach for THIS team. The roster is slow compared to the demands of the system. The blue line isn't talented enough to play his up tempo game. He doesn't hold the entire roster accountable.

Once you remove Brunette, bring in Karl Taylor as our head coach. Taylor excels at getting the most out of rosters and has been excellent for young player development. He knows guys like Svechkov, ZLH, etc. And what they need to develop into quality NHLers.

If the you believe Gibson, Molendyk, Wood etc are really quality NHLers, you are much better off bringing in Taylor and letting him build the pipeline to the NHL.

To that end, Trotz and the coach need to be on the same page of who needs to be on the roster. You can't sign guys to extensions and then have the coach not use them like Fabbro, Parssinen among others. It hasn't felt like Trotz and Brunette are on the same page from the outside.

3. Embrace the rebuild. Sports is cyclical. The Preds have been in a win now mode since 2017. It's time to rebuild and not try to do it on the fly and we as fans appreciate it. But you also have to know when to take a step back and let things cook. Take the time rebuild through the draft and do it the right way instead of trying to cut corners and sign big name free agents to unmovable contracts.

We've heard a lot about the plan is in pen and the path is in pencil. We don't think Trotz has done a good enough job articulating what the plan is to fans which has led to a ton of backlash/broken trust. It's been a frustrating season for everyone involved. Smashville is behind you, but we feel like we are being lead blindly. We urge you to embrace a rebuild and articulate the plan rather than trying to rebuild on the fly.

Please write an open letter to season ticket holders and fans explaining what our goals are for the next three years. Explain how you are setting the foundation for the 2028-9 season to be the best in franchise history. Explain the vision of how you are going to bring in young talent through the draft and through trades. We are going to put those young guys in positions to shine. We may not make the playoffs, but it's important to set those expectations for fans. This doesn't mean losing is ok, but it helps us understand where the organization is going.

 

[Kat Predator]

I translate the "plan in pen, path in pencil" comment as culture is paramount and is installed by signing veteran UFAs who happened to play on championship teams. That is the pen. Everyone else is here to make the pen successful. They are the pencil. Players that are part of the pencil and who don't help the pen win will be given positions in a revolving door and will be penciled in and erased until there is a championship.

That's not too far off conventional wisdom in that most GMs would agree that you want a "core group" of really talented, really driven players to lead the team, and then you want to build out a complete roster with the right complementary players. In a salary cap league, it just has to work this way. The cap means you can't pay 23 guys at $10M+ AAV.

Where this seems to diverge to me is that most GMs would tell you that the "core group" needs to come from within. That you build through the draft. It usually doesn't work out all the way to a dynasty, but in the few cases when it does, the sustained level of success for the franchise is nirvana. With this approach, the complementary players are veterans that help to develop and mold the pipeline turning it into the core.

What's alarming about our anti-conventional approach is that a "core group" formed from UFAs on their last big contracts and from other teams may not actually mesh or even be a group that can win. Instead of a team, it may just be some individuals with impressive laurels. And the other side of the anti-conventional plan is that the pipeline is just there to supply temporary filler pieces. So you can and should treat your drafts as a bunch of waiver wire pickups. Give them a game or 3 and if you don't like them, throw them back in the pond.