Nashville Predators Talk - 2024/2025 Season II

[Porter Stoutheart]

If I thought it was going to be a competitive season for us, the mid-season disruption would bother me.

As it is... sorry Swedish fans that you have to watch these two teams!

 

[ShagDaddy]

6 of this seasons 25 wins came against SJS and CHI which are the two teams ahead of them in the draft. Bwahahaha

 

[Preds Partisan]

If I thought it was going to be a competitive season for us, the mid-season disruption would bother me.

As it is... sorry Swedish fans that you have to watch these two teams!

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Yeah, once the Perdmobile is in the ditch next fall a European road trip isn't going to matter. Well, except for the GM who will use it as yet another excuse for why the team is floundering under his leadership.

 

[Top 6 Spaling]

Preds lose, Kraken up 6-2, Ducks getting at least a loser point as they head to OT. Penguins win would have been nice, but overall a good night for our draft position

 

[hockey diva]

I would been fine with some down years and I think the fan base could have tolerated it. But l now have no hope that things will get better. An almost complete redo is needed at this point from the tix reps to the in game ops, to most of the hockey operations side. We are doomed.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

The in game ops have gotten so bad. I was there last night and woof.

Also, I was big fan of Ward, Smithson, Ryan Jones etc. I can't stand our current crop of 4th liners. McCarron and Smith are just terrible.

 

[Kat Predator]

The in game ops have gotten so bad. I was there last night and woof.

Also, I was big fan of Ward, Smithson, Ryan Jones etc. I can't stand our current crop of 4th liners. McCarron and Smith are just terrible.

Meanwhile, Bruno is double shifting Kohlsmith.

 

[herzausstein]

Meanwhile, Bruno is double shifting Kohlsmith.

Top of the lineup could use more skilled grit like a tkachuk type... Smith isn't that though so personally think that's a dumb idea.

I still don't understand why we didn't just try to get futures from schenn and Novak. Not a huge fan of what I've seen from bunting

 

[Armourboy]

I would been fine with some down years and I think the fan base could have tolerated it. But l now have no hope that things will get better. An almost complete redo is needed at this point from the tix reps to the in game ops, to most of the hockey operations side. We are doomed.

As I've said multiple times the major mistakes started last season. Everyone was ready for a down year with the understandingit may be the start of a rebuild8. We were expecting it to be the year we found out what guys like Tomasino, Parssinen, etc. could do and move them if they didn't think they would work.

Instead we worried about making the playoffs and now even if they turn the ship around you are looking at 5 years down the road. Problem is they are running full steam ahead so now no one has any hope or willingness to sit through it.

 

[Kat Predator]

As I've said multiple times the major mistakes started last season. Everyone was ready for a down year with the understandingit may be the start of a rebuild8. We were expecting it to be the year we found out what guys like Tomasino, Parssinen, etc. could do and move them if they didn't think they would work.

Instead we worried about making the playoffs and now even if they turn the ship around you are looking at 5 years down the road. Problem is they are running full steam ahead so now no one has any hope or willingness to sit through it.

If you buy what Trotz, Willy, Mace, etc. are selling then you think we have a legit shot at being a contender as soon as next season. This season was just bad luck, and everything is going according to the blueprints.

 

[Top 6 Spaling]

As I've said multiple times the major mistakes started last season. Everyone was ready for a down year with the understandingit may be the start of a rebuild8. We were expecting it to be the year we found out what guys like Tomasino, Parssinen, etc. could do and move them if they didn't think they would work.

Instead we worried about making the playoffs and now even if they turn the ship around you are looking at 5 years down the road. Problem is they are running full steam ahead so now no one has any hope or willingness to sit through it.

I consistently look back on the Forsberg extension as our crossing of the Rubicon. Obviously he has been great and well worth the money, but if we had traded him at Trade Deadline 2022 when it first became clear our window was closing/closed, we don't make decisions like extending Saros or signing all of these old bums. That was the last chance for us to do the smart thing and start the rebuild early, before guys lost all their value. Trading even a few of Forsberg, Saros, Josi, Duchene, RyJo, etc at the height of their value would have gotten us *elite* young talent.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I consistently look back on the Forsberg extension as our crossing of the Rubicon. Obviously he has been great and well worth the money, but if we had traded him at Trade Deadline 2022 when it first became clear our window was closing/closed, we don't make decisions like extending Saros or signing all of these old bums. That was the last chance for us to do the smart thing and start the rebuild early, before guys lost all their value. Trading even a few of Forsberg, Saros, Josi, Duchene, RyJo, etc at the height of their value would have gotten us *elite* young talent.

Hmm, that's definitely not the path I would have pursued.

I just think there were a whole lot of ways we could have maintained a good team, making some of the moves we did, not making some others, and be on a better path. I guess it's tough to really project how some of our recently discarded young players could have been "developed properly" and how much they could be contributing today in that hypothetical alternate universe. But even leaving that part of things aside, I think we could have kept Ekholm, not liquidated Duchene, kept Askarov, just used Fabbro like Columbus is using him, and of course most importantly FIRED/NOT HIRED Bruno as coach...

We're dealing with a lot of self-inflicted wounds right now. I don't know if we really could have ever traded any of our guys for truly "elite" young talent. I don't think any of them nets us a top-5 level prospect, for example. And I'm not sure what even having a couple such prospects in the pipeline would really do for us anyway... they are just AT BEST going to be more Forsberg/Duchene/RyJo type players in the future *if* they pan out. It's really only the unicorn franchise level young talents who make a difference on their own. And you don't get those in a trade.

It just seems to me we could have set ourselves onto a better path forward just by keeping some guys around and maybe making a few additions around them, as opposed to the scorched earth remodeling that Trotz has undertaken. I'm not sure it would have made us a "contender", but I don't think tanking more deliberately would have given us more to cheer about either.

Anyway, it is what it is now. We're probably going to be in a position to draft that young talent now, even without the deliberation.

 

[herzausstein]

If you buy what Trotz, Willy, Mace, etc. are selling then you think we have a legit shot at being a contender as soon as next season. This season was just bad luck, and everything is going according to the blueprints.

Yeah that isn't happening. Our top 6 is a retirement home, current center depth is garbage, RHD group is not good, LHD group is OK but mostly comprised of elderly and the unknown, goalkeeping has been backsliding. Noone in MIL is poised to breakout and coaching only gives younger players bigger roles when there are injuries or no other options. I just don't see it happening. I hope they prove me very wrong

 

[PredsV82]

Wasn't sure where to post but Preds are playing overseas again next year. Sweden this time.