NHL Rumors: What is the Nashville Predators’ actual game plan?

What is the actual game plan of the Nashville Predators?

Bleacher Report – In notebook: Frank Seravalli, on the Nashville Predators and what their game plan is.

**NHL Rumours.com transcription

“And that part, to me, is the plan that’s most important. Let someone from the Nashville Predators, Barry Trotz, talk to us and help us understand what the plan is.

I want to take you to 2023. I’m in Toronto. I’m at the Ritz Carlton, and I’m interviewing Barry Trotz on my podcast, and I’m asking him about the season outlook, it’s November. And he says, “we’re in for another three to five years of pain,” because David Poile laid it out so clearly for the Preds when he retired.

He traded away well over a quarter of the roster. Provided the organization with futures and choices. and they were prepared to move in a different direction from the attitude they had been in for the past fifteen to eighteen years under David Poile’s tenure. We’re constantly trying to strive to be competitive, to be a team that has a chance to win the Stanley Cup, and sometimes you just need that reset.

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So that was put in place, and Barry Trotz takes over, and it’s his first season, and he says three to five years of pain. It’s on the record. You can go listen to it.

That season was a very strange year for the Preds. They eventually win fifteen games in a row, make the playoffs and lose in the first round in five games to the Vancouver Canucks. And somehow, that plan of three to five years of pain, of overhauling the roster, of bringing in picks and prospects, got crumpled and thrown out the window in an attempt to sign Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei.

And so you take that and now you’re like, ‘Okay, we were a playoff team in the first round, but now can we be competitive in the mix.’ And they sign Juuse Saros to an eight-year contract extension, and, and, and.

That’s all well and good, but if you don’t make the playoffs in the first year of that, and you not only miss the playoffs, but you finish in 28th place. And the next season you’ll be at the bottom of the rankings again. What’s next?

And everyone believes the thought process now is to trade away some of those expensive veterans, but you’ll have to do it for pennies on the dollar. You know, the wish list return for Ryan O’Reilly is great, but that’s the return from a few years ago when he went to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the deadline. That’s not the return for what Ryan O’Reilly has been playing now.

And then you look at Jonathan Marchessault. I don’t think that contract is crazy, it got out of hand. The term isn’t great, but I don’t think the AAV is a killer. And Steven Stamkos hasn’t played at a level that would warrant any significant interest in that cap hit. Are the Preds willing to withhold salary in a trade to move some of those players?

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So that’s basically what the presidents are staring at. But what’s the plan? What is the thought process? What will be the guiding light for the Nashville Predators to get back into contention in the coming years?

We know there are tough choices to be made, but when will those decisions be made for a team that really hasn’t shown any promise this season to be a team capable of much of anything?

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