Nashville Predators Talk - 2024/2025 Season

[Viqsi]

I’m perfectly happy to say that Duchene wouldn’t be performing as well here as he is in Dallas but I also think it’s a bit ridiculous to say he can’t play C and O’Reilly is clearly better when Duchene is playing C and is leading one of the top teams in the league in points

When you have fantastically amazing wingers that can handle most of what a C does, you don't need someone who can carry the position there.

 

[Kat Predator]

When you have fantastically amazing wingers that can handle most of what a C does, you don't need someone who can carry the position there.

Wait. What? Are you saying there is such a thing as complementary skill sets?

Why that's ... genius!

 

[wmupreds]

Can we please not pretend that Duchene here would look anything like the Duchene on an absolutely loaded forward group that is Dallas?

WRT RoR... i believe it has been said several times around here that he is absolutely not an ideal 1C. Should be a 2C max but he is easily the best actual center currently with the team.

It's not so much "would Duchene look exactly the same here" as it is "should we be paying Duchene millions to still be a productive player elsewhere?"

I'm not convinced the intangibles (negative, supposedly, in Duchene's case) were so critical that he needed to be bought out. Certainly our current performance with a bunch of serial winners isn't making that case very persuasively.

 

[Predsanddead24]

It's not so much "would Duchene look exactly the same here" as it is "should we be paying Duchene millions to still be a productive player elsewhere?"

I'm not convinced the intangibles (negative, supposedly, in Duchene's case) were so critical that he needed to be bought out. Certainly our current performance with a bunch of serial winners isn't making that case very persuasively.

Yeah I’m not saying Duchene is Crosby or McDavid type at 1C to lead the team to a Cup. But I think he’s also shown throughout his career that he’s perfectly capable of being successful playing center when put in the right situation. And he’s certainly way better than any of our other center options outside of maybe O’Reilly. The other thing is if it’s true that O’Reilly wouldn’t come here with Duchene on the roster than I think we’re seeing that may say more about O’Reilly than Duchene.

 

[Armourboy]

Yeah I’m not saying Duchene is Crosby or McDavid type at 1C to lead the team to a Cup. But I think he’s also shown throughout his career that he’s perfectly capable of being successful playing center when put in the right situation. And he’s certainly way better than any of our other center options outside of maybe O’Reilly. The other thing is if it’s true that O’Reilly wouldn’t come here with Duchene on the roster than I think we’re seeing that may say more about O’Reilly than Duchene.

Considering some of the other feathers Duchene has ruffled over the years I don't think it does. I just think it says that ROR didn't care for the way he did things.

One led a team to a Cup, the other has never come close to anything like that.

ROR is struggling in this system just like everyone else is on the team. Duchene, if here, would be too because it stinks.

 

[herzausstein]

I’m perfectly happy to say that Duchene wouldn’t be performing as well here as he is in Dallas but I also think it’s a bit ridiculous to say he can’t play C and O’Reilly is clearly better when Duchene is playing C and is leading one of the top teams in the league in points

He couldnt beat out the ghost of RyJo and Granlund to get the center spot here. We didnt have the wing depth and still dont to put him in that position. The quality of dallas' forward group is far ahead of ours

 

[glenngineer]

Considering some of the other feathers Duchene has ruffled over the years I don't think it does. I just think it says that ROR didn't care for the way he did things.

One led a team to a Cup, the other has never come close to anything like that.

ROR is struggling in this system just like everyone else is on the team. Duchene, if here, would be too because it stinks.

My question is why? It's not like he wasn't here last year and had to relearn it. It's not like he didn't start the year with the same linemates. I worried about ROR's footspeed last year. This year he looks cooked.

I keep seeing we need a 2C when in reality we need a 1C so we can bump ROR to 2C at a bare minimum.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Considering some of the other feathers Duchene has ruffled over the years I don't think it does. I just think it says that ROR didn't care for the way he did things.

One led a team to a Cup, the other has never come close to anything like that.

ROR is struggling in this system just like everyone else is on the team. Duchene, if here, would be too because it stinks.

O'Reilly didn't leave Colorado or Buffalo on good terms either. O'Reilly himself admitted to adopting a losing attitude in Buffalo. Which is to say just because Duchene was a crappy teammate during his time in Colorado I don't really think that reputation is deserved anymore. The teams he's left in recent years certainly haven't looked any better once he was gone at a minimum. If O'Reilly still can't bury the hatchet with a guy he butt heads with when they were in their early 20s for the good of the team that's not a great look to me. Although I'm not sure the O'Reilly refused to play with Duchene thing is actually true so maybe I shouldn't have even brought it up. I guess I should also clarify that I'm not comparing prime O'Reilly to prime Duchene because in that case it's no doubt O'Reilly, but rather where these guys are at this point in their careers. I lived in St. Louis for some of the O'Reilly years so I watched a lot of them and O'Reilly was fantastic then, but he's a fraction of the defensive player he was at that point. Maybe that's all because of the system but I also think he's just lost a step and isn't as surehanded as he was in St. Louis either.

He couldnt beat out the ghost of RyJo and Granlund to get the center spot here. We didnt have the wing depth and still dont to put him in that position. The quality of dallas' forward group is far ahead of ours

Coaching struggled to find a way to make him work at center here. I don't know why O'Reilly gets the coaches can't use him right pass while Duchene doesn't. Different coaches but I think it still applies. And yes Dallas's forward group is better than ours but Duchene is also leading that forward group in most categories. His linemates are Marchment who is having a career year and Seguin who is having the best year since his return from major injuries in 2021. Going into the season if I were a center I definitely would have chosen Forsberg and Nyquist as my linemates over those two.