Nashville Predators Talk - 2024/2025 Season

[glenngineer]

Vingan had an interesting thought and that was to split starts for the rest of the season to "rest" Saros and get him refocused for next year. I'm of the sort of, split starts, see what you have in Annunen and if he seems to be the real deal, move Saros, give Annunen the net and sign a decent veteran backup.

 

[herzausstein]

Vingan had an interesting thought and that was to split starts for the rest of the season to "rest" Saros and get him refocused for next year. I'm of the sort of, split starts, see what you have in Annunen and if he seems to be the real deal, move Saros, give Annunen the net and sign a decent veteran backup.

Im all for split starts for a variety of reasons

1) see what we have in Annunen
2) reset/refocus/rest Saros
3) if Annunen proves himself and Saros rebounds, we can see about moving from saros and get a decent return.
4) If saros doesnt rebound, we can try to move him before his new contract kicks in and we get stuck with it.

 

[Armourboy]

I was listening and called in and then hit end because I didn’t want to erupt on air. Vingan is at least trying to be rational while Willy and Mason are defending him.

One that got me was Willy saying only certain websites have accurate info so if you aren't paying for it then it's basically useless. Yeah I will at least give Vingan credit he was basically showing the numbers have been bad for a while.

View attachment 968499

Look at this last 20 starts and those numbers get alot worse.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Look at this last 20 starts and those numbers get alot worse.

December and January have been pretty bad...

 

[bdub24]

And how did they get that talent? Mcdavid and Drai were gifts for sucking for a decade straight and drafting top 5 year after year. Same with Colorado, drafting Mack, Makar, Landeskog and Rantanen didn't take a good gm or even a "mediocre" one like Poile to figure out.

Ya of course, but critically - they have been able to develop and retain that talent PLUS add more talent and still have cap room…

 

[herzausstein]

December and January have been pretty bad...

View attachment 968526

Annunen has 6 wins in his stint here against SJS x 2 (one of which was recovering from Saros' pisspoor start), VGK, Flames, Kings, and Stars. Meanwhile, Saros in that same timeframe has won against MIN, CHI, VAN, CAR, and NYR. Annunen actually has wins agaisnt the better teams. His losses are to MTL and MIN. MTL was a 0-3 allowing 2 goals on 29 shots which gave us a fighting chance and wild was 3-5 allowing 5 goals on 38 shots. 3 of those goals against were powerplay goals. L'Heureux got kicked out and Lauzon was injured. Pretty bad game all around.

At this point, Annunen needs to be rotating in and getting starts until Saros sorts his crap out

 

[ShagDaddy]

Listening to 102.5, the amount of " you don't really know hockey " they are using to try and cover for Saros numbers is down right pathetic. Derrick Mason acting like he knows a damn thing about the NHL is laughable.

I quit listening to that station a while back. They rarely discuss the Preds even though they are the flagship, when they do discuss the Preds they expose just how little they understand about hockey.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Imagine if we had Annonen, Askarov and whatever we got in a trade for Saros. My my my.

I get no Stamkos, no Marchy etc but... I'm not convinced we wouldn't be a better team now or in the future.

You got a find a way to trade Saros before that NMC kicks in. If you don't...

 

[Armourboy]

I quit listening to that station a while back. They rarely discuss the Preds even though they are the flagship, when they do discuss the Preds they expose just how little they understand about hockey.

I tend to listen while eating my lunch if they are talking Preds, although this mess today was so stupid I about puked it back up. This went beyond homerism and into the realm of delusion.

 

[herzausstein]

Nashville media is going to try its darnedest to justify Saros' play and contract since Trotz hitched the wagon to him and traded Askarov. They are not going to question one of the major franchise direction altering decisions for another 3 years

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Nashville media is going to try its darnedest to justify Saros' play and contract since Trotz hitched the wagon to him and traded Askarov. They are not going to question one of the major franchise direction altering decisions for another 3 years

I am looking forward to them questioning it for the other 5 years, then. Let's see if they do...

 

[bdub24]

Askarov has a HILARIOUS soundbyte making the rounds today about his reaction to the shootout against the Penguins

 

[Kat Predator]

Stastney is so much better than Gravel. Hard to understand what's going on in the FO's brains sometimes.

Well, that's quite an assumption. Brains? What evidence?

 

[glenngineer]

Willy also made the comment about why did Finland pick Saros for the 4 Nations tourney. I'm like, he was playing well when they made the selections a few months ago. He was also stating he's been one of the best 6 goalies the last 4 years because of where he's placed in the Vezina voting so of course they were going to pick him for the tourney. He thinks he can turn it around. I'm like, are you willing to bet on it for the next 8 years? And while I don't think it's completely fair for me to state this but you hitched your wagon to a guy who's never won a playoff series or even stood on his head to make you think he could steal a series here and there.

This team is bass ackwards in that they think you have to build from the net out when it's the complete opposite of how teams are built.

 

[101st_fan]

The Preds pseudo-media is posting about Trotz willing to buy if the team crawls back into things. 14 games until the TDL ... sitting five games below .500 ... needing to leap over six teams to make WC2 ... the Flames in that position could win four games between now and the TDL and hold it over the Preds even if we go 10-4-0.

Why nobody in the alleged media bats an eye when Trotz says inane stuff is why only the uninformed think they are actually media.

 

[Kat Predator]

The Preds pseudo-media is posting about Trotz willing to buy if the team crawls back into things. 14 games until the TDL ... sitting five games below .500 ... needing to leap over six teams to make WC2 ... the Flames in that position could win four games between now and the TDL and hold it over the Preds even if we go 10-4-0.

Why nobody in the alleged media bats an eye when Trotz says inane stuff is why only the uninformed think they are actually media.

Would it really be that surprising that Trotz told them he's thinking about buying?

I mean he also confirmed he doesn't know the difference between 4% and 40% recently.

 

[101st_fan]

Would it really be that surprising that Trotz told them he's thinking about buying?

I mean he did also confirmed he doesn't know the difference between 4% and 40% recently.

And our pseudo-media fails to call him out for either.

 

[nine_inch_fang]

The Preds pseudo-media is posting about Trotz willing to buy if the team crawls back into things. 14 games until the TDL ... sitting five games below .500 ... needing to leap over six teams to make WC2 ... the Flames in that position could win four games between now and the TDL and hold it over the Preds even if we go 10-4-0.

Why nobody in the alleged media bats an eye when Trotz says inane stuff is why only the uninformed think they are actually media.

Yeah, if you include the last 6 games at 5-1 then if the went 12-2 in the remaining games it'd be a 17-3, 20 game stretch before the TDL. That would be a VERY unlikely turn around. And still need to finish the last 20 games something like 14-6 to sniff the playoffs.

Trotz just blowing smoke up the "media's" asses so they'll regurgitate it. I get the whole being positive thing (I'm usually someone of a cheerleader around here) but there's some to be said for being pragmatic too.

 

[BigFatCat999]

You do realize that the role of a GM is to be a professional liar

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Would it really be that surprising that Trotz told them he's thinking about buying?

I mean he also confirmed he doesn't know the difference between 4% and 40% recently.

He said if we climb back into race he’d spend low picks to help them. That sounded more like guy selling hope than one who really thinks we are going to playoffs.

 

[Scoresberg]

Washington's a good team to learn from. They were on the downswing a couple years back and were headed into a painful and lenghty rebuild. Since then:

- They hired an up-and-coming HC in Carbury.

- Traded for Chychrun, a top-10 defenseman this year, for peanuts.

- Traded for Dubois, who was a lot better than his reputation indicated.

- Drafted McMichael, properly DEVELOPED him and played him in a top-six role.

- Already a few years back traded for Dylan Strome who looks like a legit 1C.

- Traded for a Vezina-worthy goalie Logan Thompson for pretty much nothing.

I mean the point is, it's not always all about building through the draft but you have to be willing to take some chances at the trade market and it takes a very good GM to do what they've been able to do in Washington. In addition to that, they've got one of the hottest prospects coming up in Leonard AND they have Cole Hutson in their pipeline as well.

 

[weeze]

Barron seems to be good for at least one extremely bone-headed decision per game, but if somehow that can get coached out of him, he might develop into a serviceable player. He has a lot of physical talents but might need to get a little bit meaner as well.

Well I have see #59 make a few in each of the last few games. Passes right to the other team. If we are gonna call out some bonehead plays. After a pass to the other team in our own end that resulted in a score for them, I was thinking is he trying for the Preds to lose so they could get a high end draft choice?

 

[bdub24]

Washington's a good team to learn from. They were on the downswing a couple years back and were headed into a painful and lenghty rebuild. Since then:

- They hired an up-and-coming HC in Carbury.

- Traded for Chychrun, a top-10 defenseman this year, for peanuts.

- Traded for Dubois, who was a lot better than his reputation indicated.

- Drafted McMichael, properly DEVELOPED him and played him in a top-six role.

- Already a few years back traded for Dylan Strome who looks like a legit 1C.

- Traded for a Vezina-worthy goalie Logan Thompson for pretty much nothing.

I mean the point is, it's not always all about building through the draft but you have to be willing to take some chances at the trade market and it takes a very good GM to do what they've been able to do in Washington. In addition to that, they've got one of the hottest prospects coming up in Leonard AND they have Cole Hutson in their pipeline as well.

So we need a GM that is great at evaluating talent, some luck, and a competent coach…all things we are not having so far

 

[Scoresberg]

So we need a GM that is great at evaluating talent, some luck, and a competent coach…all things we are not having so far

Touché.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Washington's a good team to learn from. They were on the downswing a couple years back and were headed into a painful and lenghty rebuild. Since then:

- They hired an up-and-coming HC in Carbury.

- Traded for Chychrun, a top-10 defenseman this year, for peanuts.

- Traded for Dubois, who was a lot better than his reputation indicated.

- Drafted McMichael, properly DEVELOPED him and played him in a top-six role.

- Already a few years back traded for Dylan Strome who looks like a legit 1C.

- Traded for a Vezina-worthy goalie Logan Thompson for pretty much nothing.

I mean the point is, it's not always all about building through the draft but you have to be willing to take some chances at the trade market and it takes a very good GM to do what they've been able to do in Washington. In addition to that, they've got one of the hottest prospects coming up in Leonard AND they have Cole Hutson in their pipeline as well.

What Washington has done also takes some creativity and risks. PLD was a huge risk but they were willing to take on his deal and try to make it work. Thompson was still a bit of an unknown if he could manage a net full time.

We've shown we can develop forwards and keep them in the org, so let's ignore Protas and McM. But the thing I can't ignore is Washington's NHL scouts identifying pieces that could fit in a system and getting them even if they were question marks. They also were willing to take on bad contracts. Something we historically haven't done.

Sean Monahan would be a perfect example. His contract was traded for a first round pick. He was great in Montreal before being flipped for another first round pick to WPG. Now he's a point per game player on Columbus. Our management would never do that deal. They don't have the creativity.