What is the Nashville Predators’ actual game plan?
Bleacher Report – Inside Notebook: Frank Seravalli, on the Nashville Predators and what is their game plan.
** NHL Rumors.com transcription
“And that part, to me, is the plan is what’s most important. Have someone from the Nashville Predators, Barry Trotz, speak to us and help us understand what the plan is.
I want to take you back 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 three to five more years of pain,’ because David Poile had laid it out so clearly for the Preds on his way out into retirement.
He traded away more than a quarter of the roster. Stockpiled the organization with futures and picks. and they were ready to move in a different direction than the posture that they had been in for the last 15 to 18 years under David Poile’s tenure. Constantly trying to go for it 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 into 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, a real weird year for the Preds. They end up winning 15 games in a row, and they make the playoffs, and they lose to the Vancouver Canucks in five games in the first round. And somehow, that plan of three to five years of pain, of overhauling the roster, of bringing in picks and prospects, was crumpled up and thrown out the window in an effort to sign Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei.
And so, you take that and now you’re thinking, ‘Okay, we were a first round playoff team, but can we be competitive right now in the mix.’ And they sign Juuse Saros to that 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 just miss the playoffs, but you finish in 28th place. And then the following season, you’re swirling at the bottom of the standings again. What’s the next step?
And everyone believes that the thought process is now to trade away some of those high-priced veterans, but you’re going to have to do it for pennies on the dollar. You know, the return that’s been floated as a wish list for Ryan O’Reilly is great, but that’s the return from a few years ago when he went to the, to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the deadline. That’s not the return for what Ryan O’Reilly has played at now.
And then you look at Jonathan Marchessault. I think that contract is really not crazy, out of whack. 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 some significant interest at that cap hit. So are the Preds willing to retain salary on a transaction to move out some of those players?
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So that’s really what the presidents are staring down. But what is the plan? What is the thought process? What is going to be the guiding light for the Nashville Predators for the next handful of years to get back into contention?
We know that there’s tough choices to be made, but when are those decisions going to start getting made for a team that really has shown no promise this season of being a team that’s capable of doing much of anything at all?”
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