Nashville Predators Talk - 2024/2025 Season

[Bye Bye Blueston]

You're pretty much a 1C or you're not. Very few players grow into a 1C. I'm racking my brain trying to think if anyone has grown into a 1C. You have the exceptions of teams having 2 1C's like Pittsburgh and TB has had. At best, you're getting a low level 1C like we did with Johansen.

Not everyone is ready to be 1c on day one. Look at Jack Hughes. Robert Thomas took 4 years. But even on both of those guys, it was always clear they were future 1c which is I think what you were driving at.

 

[glenngineer]

Not everyone is ready to be 1c on day one. Look at Jack Hughes. Robert Thomas took 4 years. But even on both of those guys, it was always clear they were future 1c which is I think what you were driving at.

Correct. I could’ve stated it a little better. Thanks for clarifying my thoughts.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

If we're talking "make the NHL", 50% is fairly close, but "become legit #2C quality"? 10% is way closer

Let me try the math on that... the centers drafted in the #20-32 spots in the last 8 years... not including 2024 because that's too soon to even have any inkling of how guys are progressing. I'll give them a "yes", "no", "DQ"... yes if they make the cut, no if they don't, and DQ if they were never really centers to begin with and everybody knew it. There are several who it's not determined yet, but if they're looking good and on track I'll give those a "yes". I'll get a few wrong, but there are enough that hopefully it'll be in the error bars.

So in total we have:
24 qualified players
18 regular NHLers (green or orange) = 75%
9 with top-6 aspirations (green) = 37.5%

It's all "-ish", but then IMHO so is Cozens. If we really focused on picking the best guy who really looks like a "True Center" with a late 1st, we'd have at least a decentish shot at getting somebody. Better than 10%. Not as good as 50%.

Of course we all know that the "Nashville Odds" are 0% regardless.

2023
(DQ) Charlie Stramel - was never going to be a C
(No) Otto Stenburg - I doubt it
(Yes) Calum Ritchie - looking great
(Yes!) David Edstrom - we can only hope

2022
(No) Nathan Gaucher - not looking good
(No) Filip Bystedt - looking good, but jury out
(No) Jiri Kulich - looking good, but jury out
(No) Brad Lambert - bust

2021
(DQ) Xavier Bourgault - not a C
(Yes) Wyatt Johnston - awesome pick
(DQ) Zachary Dean - not a C

2020
(Yes) Hendrix Lapierre - off to a good start
(Yes) Conor Zary - over 0.5ppg
(No) Ridley Grieg - more like a 3rd liner?
(No) Brendan Brisson - bust
(Yes) Mavrik Bourque - on his way
(DQ) Ozzy Wiesblatt - not a C

2019
(DQ) Phillip Tomasino - not a C
(Yes) Connor McMichael - PPG this year #2C at least
(No) Ryan Suzuki - bust
(DQ) John Beecher - not a C
(No) Shane Pinto - close, he's making $3.75M and scored 20 goals...

2018
(No) Rasmus Kupari - bottom-6 NHLer
(No) Isac Lundestrom - bottom-6 NHLer
(No) Joe Veleno - bottom-6 NHLer

2017
(Yes) Robert Thomas - bona fide #1C
(Yes) Filip Chytil - decent injury prone #2C
(No) Ryan Poehling - decent bottom-6 C
(No) Morgan Frost - decent but not really a C?
(No) Shane Bowers - bust
(DQ) Klim Kostin - not a C at all and never was