Rebuilding is the only option for Cup contention for the Predators
An organizational reset could be in store for the Nashville Predators. After this season, in which they finished tied for fifth in the Central Division with 86 points and missed the playoffs for a second straight year for the first time since 2014, the Predators may have to change course to find ultimate success.
Nashville figures to hire a new general manager shortly, as current GM Barry Trotz has announced his intention to step down from the position. Whoever the new GM may be, they’ll have to decide whether their current veteran-laden roster, sporting mid-thirties players such as Steven Stamkos, Ryan O’Reilly, and Jonathan Marchessault, is good enough to compete next season, or if a rebuild is in order to restock on young talent.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed which path the Predators should pursue this offseason.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The issue here for Nashville, I love that they have $28 million in cap space, but lots of teams have cap space now. That’s not really the sexy commodity it was during the COVID flat cap years. I don’t know what they’re going to do, but they have a hard decision to make because I don’t see a path to them being able to compete with the Colorados, Minnesotas, Dallas’. This is very similar to our Winnipeg and our St. Louis conversations. There’s no path to them being elite in that division, so if you’re not going to be elite, I think you need to bite the bullet and just be bad for two or three years and hope that once Colorado and Dallas maybe hit some sort of a speed bump in 2028 or 2029, that’s when you have some young pieces and you’re ready to take a step forward.
Carter Hutton: I think that’s where you’re at now. You look at this team and that veteran presence Barry Trotz wanted to get. I look back to that free agency and we were all kind of wowed, the fireworks went off and we we were like “How good is team going to be?” It didn’t ever fit, and I know they had a good push last year and they moved (Michael) McCarron out, they moved out a Cole Smith as well who’s still playing. There’s a few factors that got moved out, but that being said it just kind of left you wanting more.
Then you start to think about the future and where you’re at, this is where you need to start developing some other guys, whether it’s Matthew Wood or Luke Evangelista who signed that contract. These guys need to be thrust into a bigger role where they can grow to be your stars. Then if you can start moving guys out, if it’s Marchessault, if it’s Stamkos. I think Filip Forsberg at 31 is a guy that I don’t know if he’ll ever not play for the Preds. But if you can start to move these guys out and maybe get some pieces and eat some cap, that’s okay right now if you can kick that down the road to build your team to be better, that’s kind of where you’re at. You’re in a real tricky situation now with the way this team is structured.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Friday’s episode here…