Living in Nashville for the last eight years, I follow the Predators as my hometown team (although my true loyalties will always lie elsewhere). And even though they need to include the basic rules of hockey in their game programs, Preds fans are loyal, passionate, and they actually show up---unlike other southern fan bases. What they lack in knowledge (I've explained icing to more local strangers than I would like to admit) they make up for in excitement, and they had a lot to be excited about in 2014-15. The Predators somehow spent most of the year at or near the top of the league standings, and finished second in the uber-competetive Central division. But like every other year, a promising team shat the bed in the playoffs, not making it out of the first round. If the Predators ever want to actually compete for a Stanley Cup and really give their fans something to cheer about, a couple things need to happen.
Get a Big Name Center
The Preds have never had the one piece that sets good teams apart from contenders: an all-star-caliber, game-breaking center. Crosby (and Malkin), Toews, Kopitar, Bergeron, all these guys are the the best players on their teams and double as leaders off the ice. They turn it up in the playoffs, score the big goals, and end up lifting the Cup come June. A team like the Predators, with incredibly average centers like Mike Ribeiro, Mike Fisher, and Paul Gaustad, are missing that key piece that would rank them with the NHL's elite.
The worst part is, I have no idea where they could legitimately find one. The upcoming free agent class is stocked with possible big name centers like Steven Stamkos and Anze Kopitar, but a second-tier guy refusing to come to Nashville is not a good sign if they look to pursue a real superstar. The Hockey News named Eric Staal as a possible candidate on the Pred's radar, but this isn't 2008 and Staal hasn't broken the 70 point mark in four years. Unless they want to give up one of the young stud defensemen they've been stockpiling in some sort of package deal for a bona fide star, the Pred's trade prospect are looking pretty grim too. Maybe GM Dave Poile should have used some of his draft picks on a center or two instead of shipping them at the deadline for role players.
Sidebar: Dave
Poile hasn’t always made the best decisions (like trading away first round
picks at the deadline every other year), but sending Martin Erat and prospect
Michael Latta to Washington for Filip Forsberg may go down as the biggest steal
in Preds history. Erat played one year in Washington and just signed with some
KHL team, and Latta put up a whopping 6 points in 53 games last season. Highway
robbery.
Young D Needs to Keep On Improving
The brightest part of the Predator's future is on defense, where they have been developing some of the best young defenders in the game. Seth Jones is looking more and more like the #4 pick from 2013 should, Roman Josi had a fantastic 2014-15 campaign, and Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm improved by leaps and bounds throughout last season. With captain/all-star/human-cannon Shea Weber and newly acquired vet Barrett Jackman mentoring them (not to mention Hall of Famer Phil Housley on the coaching staff), these young guns should continue to grow into the stars they are projected to become. If they do, the back end in Nashville may be solid for years to come.
Another Sidebar: The Jackman signing is super underrated. He's already gelling with Seth Jones, and mentoring him in the process. And people forget that Jackman won the Calder trophy his rookie year, and he's been a steady workhorse on the St. Louis blue line ever since.
Questions Marks Need to Become Exclamation Points
Poile took a low-risk chance by signing Mike Ribeiro for 1 year at ~$1-million before last season, and he came out looking like a genius. Despite settling with his children's nanny over an alleged assault, Ribeiro turned his career around in the past year, gelling with the newly acquired James Neal and rookie phenom Filip Forsberg to form one of the most lethal scoring lines in hockey. He even managed to avoid any sort of career threatening injuries this season. This year, Poile again took the low risk/high reward route by signing Cody Hodgson to a 1 year/$1-million dollar contract. Joining the third team of his young career, and assuming he doesn't pull a Ribeiro with one of the ice girls, Hodgson just might be the next guy to turn it around after coming to Nashville.
I'm also excited to see what Steve Moses is all about. The former University of New Hampshire standout has played his last three seasons as a pro in the frozen wastelands of the Kontinental Hockey League, setting that league's single-season goal scoring record with a whopping 36 tallies in 60 games. Poile somehow managed to convince him to return to the Land of the Free, where he will make $1-million this year and hopefully provide an extra spark of offense. (Also, Dave, if you're reading this, I'd love to be your next low-risk $1-million dollar gamble).
Update: Moses was sent down to Milwaukee of the AHL towards the end of the preseason. Coach Laviolette thinks he could use more time to readjust to the North American rink (which is smaller than the European). I'm sure he will get opportunities with the big team early and often, especially if they run into injury trouble.
To Summarize
The Predators are not a great team on paper...yet. They do have all-world goalie Pekka Rinne backstopping them (when he's not hurt), and they have an all-star defenseman/captain in Shea Weber. But the rest of the defense is not elite just yet, and the forwards (besides Forsberg and a healthy James Neal) are average at best. But the future is looking up, and adding a couple more pieces could finally propel Nashville into the top tier of the NHL.
Sidebar, part III: I know this
will never ever happen, but I would love to see some fourth-line fossil like
Eric Nystrom just space out for a few months and rip like 35 goals, then go
back to being a scrub. Like if Charlie Whitehurst came back and suddenly threw
for like 4000 yards one year then went back to savingus from eternal damnation.
And if any Preds fans are still unsure, this might help you out.
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