Nashville Predators Talk - 2024/2025 Season II

[braindead]

My night: seeing a headline that says Vegas and Toronto may be in a bidding war over Schenn and opening the article to discover it is Brayden Schenn from the blues.

 

[glenngineer]

Not directed at you personally as I can't remember each persons point of view, but welcome to tanking. Seriously, for anyone who wanted to tank to win a Cup this is the level of play you can expect to see for the next 4-5 years. If you can't handle that then you have zero business talking about tanking ever again.

Now as far as the roster for next year goes, a good coach with a good basic system that uses his players strengths can mean the team is better. Alot of that too depends on just exactly who gets shipped out and who all comes in, but this team isn't this bad. Ok well with all of the injuries and such maybe the Dcore really is this bad, but early in the season that was all coaching imo. Poor system and dumb roster decisions.

Yeah the hope is pretty tapped out right now. There is some good players coming on the horizon but I'm not sure any of those guys are even on a Forsberg level, let alone the step above that. Maybe this draft fixes that, but until we see that outcome its hard to grab onto that as a glimmer of anything.

I think with the right coach we can see at least a tolerable team to watch over the course of the next couple of years, but if Brunette is still around then next year won't be any different than this one. Luckily I don't think that happens. I think ticket sales behind the scences is going to push Trotz to do something, but even if he doesn't a rough start will pretty much insure he has no choice but to get rid of him. You can't talk about having a culture of learning to win and then allow a coach to stick around that isn't winning anything.

Ultimately as fans I think we just gotta ride it out and hope in the next 3-5 years things are a little easier to swallow. Until then people just need to adjust expectations and be pleasantly surprised if we are anywhere near the playoff hunt.

I don’t know if I was ever go full on tank. What I do know is I was all for playing the kids and letting the chips fall where they may and then adding depth to what we had.

What I wasn’t for was trading most of our organizational depth for lesser talents or just letting guys go (Fabbro).

I could’ve handled watching guys like Tomasino, Glass, Parssinen struggle as long as they were giving their all and progressively getting better.

What we were sold on was what I described above. What we’ve seen happen is moving on from guys that had more potential than guys currently on the roster or being brought up from Milwaukee(Bellows and Lucchini in this instance).

So while this is a tank season for all intents and purposes, you’re spot on that the next 3-5 years will be a rough ride. And if this was the case all along, why go out and sign the FA’s we did, re-signing Saros and moving Askarov?

If Trotz truly felt this team was a playoff team, he needed to move on from Bruno in late October/early November. When things didn’t improve, he should’ve moved on. Instead he moved out NHL quality players for pennies on the dollar in the hopes that he can figure out how to build an NHL team from scratch and getting the fans to buy in to this new approach because I don’t think this is what anyone of us signed up for or anticipated.

 

[weeze]

BT doesn't think that way. He believes he has made all of the right decisions and it is all of the players fault for this season. Not his or the Coaches fault. At least that is how I see him. He brought in players that can score, if they don't score then it is their fault. Not the Coaches, not the system. If they score than we can win games. I am not sold on BT being the right choice as a GM. As others have said, this team is one long point streak from having two losing seasons in a row. Something needs to change but I am not sure BT knows what that is or will be able to make the right moves. So far he is just jettisoning players. At least Poile would be able to get a decent return on most.

 

[herzausstein]

I think that a coaching change would go a long way. All the way back to the playoffs? Probably not. But we wouldnt like we do. This team has appeared to of lost all drive. Just going through the motions. We have fake toughness at the bottom of the lineup but noone of note once you get past the bottom pairing and bottom line. We dont have any players like Tkachuk, Shea Weber, etc. High end players that will make you think twice.

Personally, wouldnt mind seeing parts of the "core" shipped off as well but i doubt we get that. Trotz bought out duchene but i see alot of players on the ice right now giving alot less effort than what duchene gave

 

[Roman Yoshi]

I wouldn't be sad if Josi, Stamkos, Marchy or Saros go. The only player that retains some value for me from a 'i like this player and would be sad if they were moved' perspective.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Snipped a bunch of a good doom post. Kudos.

Hope is not a plan. And re-running this roster again next year under Bruno isn't going to get there. In his 2 years, he has that one blip of a winning streak and otherwise shown that whoever they put on the ice, we'll lose more often.

A coaching change will help, but I doubt that means leapfrogging 5 or 6 teams all by itself. Real damage has been done to the quality and depth of the franchise. As you noted the pipeline was blown up.

Which leaves a coaching change plus trades and/or free-agent signings. I don't really trust Trotz not to flub those paths given what's happened. I also expect with the cap going up and us sucking, it will be a harder sell to get free agents to want to play here.

The other amazing thing is that we are currently #3 overall in the league in terms of Roster Age. That is, on the bad/old side.

"Hope" as a plan for next year is also in direct opposition to the reality that players tend to get worse over age 30, and our AVERAGE age is 30, with a ton of key players well past that age.

Silly Trotz, he talked like he recognized the problem last year and about how important it was going to be to integrate youth into the lineup this season... then he completely reneged on that. We don't even have very many NHL-ready young players around anymore who we could even turn to for next season. Part of that plan was going to include giving more responsibility to the group we had on hand and hoping they would show progression. Instead, we pressboxed them and then jettisoned them, so whatever faint hope any of them might have represented was never given any chance to coalesce into anything either.

We're going to be worse off next season. Our only real hope is the coaching change.

 

[jumb0]

From the Athletic

Nashville Predators​

A brutally disappointing season has left Nashville in an awkward spot at this deadline. This is not a rebuild — at least not yet — so GM Barry Trotz isn’t conducting a fire sale of veterans after already moving out rental Gustav Nyquist. The Predators are listening on center Ryan O’Reilly but need to get a promising young player back in return in order to be compelled to pull the trigger on a reliable veteran with term. Trotz is more than happy to keep him. It sounds like nothing has advanced beyond tire-kicking on the former Conn Smythe Trophy winner as a result.

 

[Armourboy]

From the Athletic

Nashville Predators​

A brutally disappointing season has left Nashville in an awkward spot at this deadline. This is not a rebuild — at least not yet — so GM Barry Trotz isn’t conducting a fire sale of veterans after already moving out rental Gustav Nyquist. The Predators are listening on center Ryan O’Reilly but need to get a promising young player back in return in order to be compelled to pull the trigger on a reliable veteran with term. Trotz is more than happy to keep him. It sounds like nothing has advanced beyond tire-kicking on the former Conn Smythe Trophy winner as a result.

I don't blame Trotz on that one, if you aren't getting what you are looking for then you just keep him. Whether it's this trade deadline or the next you are going to get the standard 1st + meh prospect anyways. He's a guy you hope someone gets desperate to have.

 

[herzausstein]

I do get wanting the moon for RoR. Our center depth is trash with him. Trading him forces Stamkos and Novak to C. Svechkov is very inexperienced and Bruno doesnt like to lean on him. So you end up with Top 6 Sissons. That can be done for a couple games but dont expect tremendous success and it isnt a good plan for the start of next season. Gotta remember that this is also planning for next season and starting next season with Stamkos, Sissons/Novak/Svechkov, McCarron down the center doesnt project that you intend to make the playoffs. It would also make him appear desperate when kicking the tires on players like Zegras/Cozens

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

I do get wanting the moon for RoR. Our center depth is trash with him. Trading him forces Stamkos and Novak to C. Svechkov is very inexperienced and Bruno doesnt like to lean on him. So you end up with Top 6 Sissons. That can be done for a couple games but dont expect tremendous success and it isnt a good plan for the start of next season. Gotta remember that this is also planning for next season and starting next season with Stamkos, Sissons/Novak/Svechkov, McCarron down the center doesnt project that you intend to make the playoffs. It would also make him appear desperate when kicking the tires on players like Zegras/Cozens

Misa

 

[Top 6 Spaling]

With the Hughes injury, I'm hoping the door has opened for a ROR to NJD trade. They have a ton of the young NHLer types that I would want back for him instead of a late first. Mercer and Nemec are the top of my wishlist there.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Came across this interview with Preds CEO. Podcast is a few weeks old, but thought might be of interest to some of y'all:

Inside Look on the Nashville Predators – CEO Sean Henry

Episode 48In this episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, host Kyle Matthews sits down with Sean Henry, CEO of the Nashville Predators. Since taking the helm in 2010, Sean has remarkably transformed the organization. Under his leadership, Bridgestone Arena has been recognized as Arena of the...

www.thematthewsmentalitypodcast.com

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I do get wanting the moon for RoR. Our center depth is trash with him. Trading him forces Stamkos and Novak to C. Svechkov is very inexperienced and Bruno doesnt like to lean on him. So you end up with Top 6 Sissons. That can be done for a couple games but dont expect tremendous success and it isnt a good plan for the start of next season. Gotta remember that this is also planning for next season and starting next season with Stamkos, Sissons/Novak/Svechkov, McCarron down the center doesnt project that you intend to make the playoffs. It would also make him appear desperate when kicking the tires on players like Zegras/Cozens

I wouldn't even be thinking about next year's lineup when it comes to trading RoR. If somebody comes along and offers enough for RoR, my only criteria is whether I think that offer is more than I will get offered at next year's TDL.

Next year's draft may be better than this year's. RoR may be older/slower/worse however. Or not? Who knows.

But if you are offering me a 2025 1st + B prospect... I will take my chances on getting a better return at next year's deadline. If you are offering me a 2026 1st + A prospect... ok... I'm listening... totally independent of how we patch together next season's roster.

 

[Armourboy]

I wouldn't even be thinking about next year's lineup when it comes to trading RoR. If somebody comes along and offers enough for RoR, my only criteria is whether I think that offer is more than I will get offered at next year's TDL.

Next year's draft may be better than this year's. RoR may be older/slower/worse however. Or not? Who knows.

But if you are offering me a 2025 1st + B prospect... I will take my chances on getting a better return at next year's deadline. If you are offering me a 2026 1st + A prospect... ok... I'm listening... totally independent of how we patch together next season's roster.

Agreed. The main piece coming back I would want is a good prospect, if I'm not getting that then I might as well just wait. The pick doesn't even really matter tbh because it wouldn't even be what I was after. Use that to go get someone else you need.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Agreed. The main piece coming back I would want is a good prospect, if I'm not getting that then I might as well just wait. The pick doesn't even really matter tbh because it wouldn't even be what I was after. Use that to go get someone else you need.

For me the pick also depends a lot on what team it's coming from. If a "pretender" is offering a 2026 1st, well, that's worth a lot more to me than if a Florida is offering it.

Teams can fall back a fair bit in a single season, apparently.