With the 2019-20 NHL season on hold we are going to take a look at where each NHL team stands at this moment with a series of posts examining their season. Have they met expectations? Exceeded expectations? Who has been the surprise? All of that and more. Today we look at the Nashville Predators.
Nashville Predators
Record: 35-26-8 (69 games), fifth in the Central Division, eighth in the Western Conference
Leading Scorer: Roman Josi -- 65 points (16 goals and 49 assists)
In-Season Transactions:
• Acquired Michael McCarron from the Montreal Canadiens for Laurent Dauphin.
• Traded Miikka Salomaki to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Ben Harpur.
• Acquired Korbinian Holzer from the Anaheim Ducks for Matt Irwin.
Season Overview:
Even though they went from Shea Weber, to P.K. Subban, to Steven Santini over the last few seasons, the Predators still have one of the stronger group of defensemen in the NHL. Captain Roman Josi was having a season to remember, as he was leading the team in scoring at the time of the pause. They still have Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm on their blue line and Dante Fabbro has become a full-time NHLer. That’s a solid group.
There’s a couple of issues with their roster though. First, they’ve invested some good money into some of their forwards and some of them just aren’t delivering consistently enough. Last summer, they gave Matt Duchene a seven-year deal worth $8 million per season. In his first year with the Preds, he managed to pick 13 goals and 42 points in 66 games. Not enough production there, but it’s his first year with a new team. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
The other forward that seems to under-achieve every other year is Ryan Johansen. To acquire Johansen from Columbus a few years ago, it cost general manager David Poile Seth Jones. Yeah, that trade hasn’t panned out too well. Johansen had 14 goals and 36 points in 68 games. Despite his disappointing campaign, you can’t give up on a 27-year-old center with the kind of size that he possess.
The bottom line is that they need more offense from their forwards. It’s a must. It’s odd to see that two of their defensemen are listed among their top four scorers this season. And Ellis, who has 38 points in 2019-20, missed 20 games due to injury.
The other problem was Pekka Rinne’s dip in play between the pipes. Look, Rinne was a terrific goaltender for a number of years, but he was going to take a step back at some point. The 37-year-old has an 18-14-4 record with a 3.17 goals-against-average and a .895 save percentage.
Those are the two biggest issues and it’s the reasons why their position in the playoffs was far from safe. Technically, the Preds would get into the postseason if it started today, but only because they had one more regulation win than Vancouver. They were that close to missing the playoffs for the first time since 2013-14.
Big decisions will have to be made whenever the off-season starts. They let go of head coach Peter Laviolette during the season and replaced him with John Hynes, but more changes might happen. Who do they keep? Who do they unload? The roster is getting older.
Highlight of the Season:
As much as Rinne has struggled this season, we can’t deny that he had the highlight of the year for the Preds. It occurred on Jan. 9 against the Chicago Blackhawks when he fired the puck into an empty net.
Goalie goals are always the best.
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Joey Alfieri is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @joeyalfieri.