Nashville Predators talk - The Offseason

[hido]

Oh come on. There are plenty of arguments against tanking but the guy Edmonton tanked for dragging them to the brink of the Cup and losing a one goal game in game 7 is just not a compelling one. Especially when NSH is perpetually losing in round one. Just use the good examples like Buffalo instead.

I’ll use the sarcasm emoji next time. My apologies.

 

[101st_fan]

They'll play young guys when they outplay the roster player.

that simple logic is too deep for most here.

 

[101st_fan]

Oh come on. There are plenty of arguments against tanking but the guy Edmonton tanked for dragging them to the brink of the Cup and losing a one goal game in game 7 is just not a compelling one. Especially when NSH is perpetually losing in round one. Just use the good examples like Buffalo instead.

The Oilers who spent from 2006-21 with one series win, missing the post season 12 of those seasons is your go to?

There isn't enough alcohol in KY for that to make sense.

The Oilers, an established franchise, have advanced past the first round of the playoffs five times since the Preds entered the league. They've selected in the top three overall in a draft more often due to sucking. Please offer a cogent point. I beg of you.

Edit to fix a spelling error. I'll sign back in for the draft. Quite frankly, there are too few of the people posting here that I find worthy of checking in to see what they've said off seaason.

 

[wmupreds]

The Oilers who spent from 2006-21 with one series win, missing the post season 12 of those seasons is your go to?

There isn't enough alcohol in KY for that to make sense.

The Oilers, an established franchise, have advanced past the first round of the playoffs five times since the Preds entered the league. They've selected in the top three overall in a draft more often due to sucking. Please offer a cogent point. I beg of you.

Edit to fix a spelling error. I'll sign back in for the draft. Quite frankly, there are too few of the people posting here that I find worthy of checking in to see what they've said off seaason.

I am no fan of the Oilers' makeup or their teambuilding strategy. I think Holland is a legitimately bad GM. The fact that McDavid dragged this poorly built team to the brink of a Cup win is barely short of a miracle. They're a great example of mismanagement. The thing is, it's not mismanagement because they tanked. They've simply failed to build a proper team around the undisputed best player in the league and another top 5ish forward in the league, both of whom are on contracts that are probably under true value. But if anything, the fact that this extremely flawed team got within a goal of the Cup shows the value of generational talent.

 

[Scoresberg]

The Ullmark trade is another trade that doesn't bode well for the potential Saros trade.. A low-1st AND a cap dump? Come on...

 

[Gh24]

We don't have anything that would add up to the value of Ehlers and McGroarty. Maybe we could do the McGroarty part, offering up Wood or Kemmell. But we can't touch Ehlers.

Ehlers is essentially a one year rental. I'm fairly sure the price isn't that high if there are no guarantees he doesn't walk next summer.

He's been quite consistent, thought. Pretty much 60 in every full (+/- a game or two) season he's had and has been on higher pace when he's played less.

 

[Scoresberg]

Somehow, I think Trotz will sign Reinhart come July 1st. He will get desperate as he sees the goalie market drying up and him leaving without a chair when the music stops.

It's a desperate move, and certainly not one a team in a "re-tool" should do. But we all know, what's the case.

So yeah, I expect Trotz to sign Reinhart to a crazy deal like 7 x $9.5 mil. Outside of this year, Reinhart's been a 30-35 goal scorer playing with arguably the best center in the world. Reminds me of Duchene, when he used to put up the points right when he was on his contract year.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Oh come on. There are plenty of arguments against tanking but the guy Edmonton tanked for dragging them to the brink of the Cup and losing a one goal game in game 7 is just not a compelling one. Especially when NSH is perpetually losing in round one. Just use the good examples like Buffalo instead.

I think the fascinating thing about Edmonton is that they're basically on a 2nd cycle of the tanking rebuild. Because the Hall-Yakupov-RNH trio of 1st OA picks failed, they were able to just keep going with the Draisatl-McDavid-Puljujarvi sequence. That is some dedicated commitment to the strategy!

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Somehow, I think Trotz will sign Reinhart come July 1st. He will get desperate as he sees the goalie market drying up and him leaving without a chair when the music stops.

It's a desperate move, and certainly not one a team in a "re-tool" should do. But we all know, what's the case.

So yeah, I expect Trotz to sign Reinhart to a crazy deal like 7 x $9.5 mil. Outside of this year, Reinhart's been a 30-35 goal scorer playing with arguably the best center in the world. Reminds me of Duchene, when he used to put up the points right when he was on his contract year.

I dunno about that proposed Reinhart deal... I agree he's not likely to ever score 57 again, definitely not with us... I guess I'd have to see all the other options on the table before I'd commit to making that offer to him. I think signing 2 good defensemen actually helps us more.

But if we simply can't get the D we need, then I'd rather "waste" money on Reinhart than see the team sit on empty Cap I guess. I just wonder if Reinhart's motivation will be that high, given he'll have his Cup and his retirement money. He did take sort of half-time faceoffs this season, I don't know if that's indicative of a chance he could be moved back to center? With that shooting %age (24.5%!) you really do have to think of him as a 30-35 goal guy, and $9.5M is a lot for that player if he's just going to be winger and doesn't really bring physicality or other elements to the table?

 

[Gh24]

Somehow, I think Trotz will sign Reinhart come July 1st. He will get desperate as he sees the goalie market drying up and him leaving without a chair when the music stops.

It's a desperate move, and certainly not one a team in a "re-tool" should do. But we all know, what's the case.

So yeah, I expect Trotz to sign Reinhart to a crazy deal like 7 x $9.5 mil. Outside of this year, Reinhart's been a 30-35 goal scorer playing with arguably the best center in the world. Reminds me of Duchene, when he used to put up the points right when he was on his contract year.

Or maybe it's Skinner if he's bought out

 

[Predsanddead24]

It's not like Florida doesnt have a handful of top 5 picks of their own.

Yeah I’m super confused by this narrative. Panthers don’t win this without the “tank” years that got them Barkov, Huberdeau, and Ekblad. Plus, I don’t even really know what tanking means anymore when we discuss it here since it apparently just means being bad intentionally or not.

 

[herzausstein]

I think the fascinating thing about Edmonton is that they're basically on a 2nd cycle of the tanking rebuild. Because the Hall-Yakupov-RNH trio of 1st OA picks failed, they were able to just keep going with the Draisatl-McDavid-Puljujarvi sequence. That is some dedicated commitment to the strategy!

It isnt like Florida has always been good though....
Barkov 2nd overall
Bennett 4th overall
Ekblad 1st overall
Lundell 12th overall

Pair that with some good trades for Tkachuk (6th overall) and reinhart (2nd overall) along with some good signings/acquisitions Verhaegea, Tarasenko, etc.

That team is riddled with high draft picks. Several from their own draft and a couple from trades.

This was a tank battle and the one that made the best moves to bolster their roster and support their draft picks won.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

The Ullmark trade is another trade that doesn't bode well for the potential Saros trade.. A low-1st AND a cap dump? Come on...

Ullmark may not sign an extension with Ottawa. Hence the lower return.

It isnt like Florida has always been good though....
Barkov 2nd overall
Bennett 4th overall
Ekblad 1st overall
Lundell 12th overall

Pair that with some good trades for Tkachuk (6th overall) and reinhart (2nd overall) along with some good signings/acquisitions Verhaegea, Tarasenko, etc.

That team is riddled with high draft picks. Several from their own draft and a couple from trades.

This was a tank battle and the one that made the best moves to bolster their roster and support their draft picks won.

You have to get players like that. And the easiest way is the draft.

 

[herzausstein]

Ullmark may not sign an extension with Ottawa. Hence the lower return.


You have to get players like that. And the easiest way is the draft.

Wonder if Ullmark expanded him NTC to allow him to go to Ottawa. Either way, it sounds like he wont discuss an extension until near or at the end of the season. So i could see that dropping his value. Hopefully saros would t be that particular but the lack of trade protections opens a trade up to all interested parties which should help with driving the price.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

You have to get players like that. And the easiest way is the draft.

Mind you, Barkov is the only one on that list who would require a top-5 pick to get. The others are run-of-the-mill players who, even if they happened to be picked high, could have been acquired by other means (lower draft picks, trades, UFA signings).

But anyway, it's definitely fair to say that a Barkov is a key ingredient in the win, and that we're highly unlikely to ever get a Barkov-caliber player without a high draft pick. I guess the fear is how many years and how many high draft picks would it take to hit on the right choice, plus get him successfully through our development system? Getting a single high draft pick might not be enough, if the odds of getting a Barkov-level player out of any given top-5 draft pick is only in the 5-10% range?

 

[Armourboy]

Yeah I’m super confused by this narrative. Panthers don’t win this without the “tank” years that got them Barkov, Huberdeau, and Ekblad. Plus, I don’t even really know what tanking means anymore when we discuss it here since it apparently just means being bad intentionally or not.

I mean you would need to know each teams situation, and some of them were so bad for so long its hard to remember. I think in both of their cases I'm not so sure they tanked as much as they were horribly mismanaged for a while. That said they both may have started as tanks that turned into mismanagement.

I call tanking when a team intentionally makes themselves worse like you saw when Toronto traded Kessel for just picks, or how Chicago offloaded everyone they could. In recent years that has been come the norm more so than teams just being managed into the ground.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Wonder if Ullmark expanded him NTC to allow him to go to Ottawa. Either way, it sounds like he wont discuss an extension until near or at the end of the season. So i could see that dropping his value. Hopefully saros would t be that particular but the lack of trade protections opens a trade up to all interested parties which should help with driving the price.

Ullmark might want to re-think his stance on the extension... playing behind the Ottawa team isn't likely to increase his market value? If they're keen to extend him now, he might be better advised to take a big juicy retirement contract from them, before his numbers start looking a whole lot worse?

 

[Armourboy]

Wonder if Ullmark expanded him NTC to allow him to go to Ottawa. Either way, it sounds like he wont discuss an extension until near or at the end of the season. So i could see that dropping his value. Hopefully saros would t be that particular but the lack of trade protections opens a trade up to all interested parties which should help with driving the price.

Ullmark's big thing was staying on the Eastern side of the countries. Ottawa falls into that category and frankly may have been his best option left.

 

[triggrman]

Somehow, I think Trotz will sign Reinhart come July 1st. He will get desperate as he sees the goalie market drying up and him leaving without a chair when the music stops.

It's a desperate move, and certainly not one a team in a "re-tool" should do. But we all know, what's the case.

So yeah, I expect Trotz to sign Reinhart to a crazy deal like 7 x $9.5 mil. Outside of this year, Reinhart's been a 30-35 goal scorer playing with arguably the best center in the world. Reminds me of Duchene, when he used to put up the points right when he was on his contract year.

I'd love to get Reinhart, and also sign some experience on the blueline, maybfe more than 1.

I think with a few additions this team could improve dramatically.

But I'm not one for tanking or long rebuilds.

 

[glenngineer]

It isnt like Florida has always been good though....
Barkov 2nd overall
Bennett 4th overall
Ekblad 1st overall
Lundell 12th overall

Pair that with some good trades for Tkachuk (6th overall) and reinhart (2nd overall) along with some good signings/acquisitions Verhaegea, Tarasenko, etc.

That team is riddled with high draft picks. Several from their own draft and a couple from trades.

This was a tank battle and the one that made the best moves to bolster their roster and support their draft picks won.

They didn't draft Bennett, Calgary did.

If we're going down this path, we had two centers that were drafted at 3rd and 4th overall. Unfortunately, neither were at the level of Barkov.

Zito made some very shrewd moves to get guys with high draft pedigree to play to their potential and buy into a system. Having high picks is one thing, getting them to play like a team is another.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Wonder if Ullmark expanded him NTC to allow him to go to Ottawa. Either way, it sounds like he wont discuss an extension until near or at the end of the season. So i could see that dropping his value. Hopefully saros would t be that particular but the lack of trade protections opens a trade up to all interested parties which should help with driving the price.

From my understanding from the 32 Thoughts Podcast/Chris Johnston, it sounds like Ottawa wasn't on his list. Deal needed to be done before he was able to redo his no move list.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Stole this from Reddit but Saros ends the playoffs with the lowest GAA out of any goalie with >3GP. A true playoff performer.

 

[herzausstein]

From my understanding from the 32 Thoughts Podcast/Chris Johnston, it sounds like Ottawa wasn't on his list. Deal needed to be done before he was able to redo his no move list.

Wonder if he was looking to add them. Either way, sounds like he doesnt want to commit and that is understandable given how ottawa has performed recently

 

[Top 6 Spaling]

I genuinely have no idea what the plan is this off-season. I can't remember more variables and possibilities than we're looking at this year, which is exciting and terrifying.

1. Our goalie position has been easy to predict for decades, but suddenly I can see realistic paths to keeping any combination of our three main guys (Saros/Lank/Asky) and moving on from one or even two of them. Heck, I could see us keeping all three in theory. My guess right now is Askarov is moved for a high draft pick/young player but it could go any direction
2. We have an enormous amount of cap space to go get marquee FAs or trade for cap casualties. We could bring on multiple 7M+ players easily, not a spot we're often in
3. Outside of Josi, our defense is fully up in the air. I wouldn't be surprised to see three new faces in our opening night D-corps - when's the last time that happened for us??
4. We have a large groups of decent/good, young(ish) players who have fallen out of favor and have a reasonable chance of getting moved. Fabbro, Tomasino, Pars, Glass, etc all wouldn't shock me at all to see flipped

After a high turnover off-season, I think we're in for an even crazier one. It's weird to me to not have any feel for the direction Trotz wants to take us.

 

[herzausstein]

They didn't draft Bennett, Calgary did.

If we're going down this path, we had two centers that were drafted at 3rd and 4th overall. Unfortunately, neither were at the level of Barkov.

Zito made some very shrewd moves to get guys with high draft pedigree to play to their potential and buy into a system. Having high picks is one thing, getting them to play like a team is another.

We only got to the finals due to one of those centers... Ryan Johansen who we got via trade by sending off seth jones who we drafted at 4th overall. Sure he got injured and didnt play in the finals but his play leading up to that injury helped pave the way to the finals. Without him, i doubt we make the finals

Also, just add bennett to the savy trade pile with Tkachuck, Montour, and Reinhart then.