Nashville Predators: Enough star power to win the Stanley Cup

Sports teams all look to build around a star player or two in order to compete for a championship. The Nashville Predators have plenty on their roster now.

We hear about it all the time. Teams in every league look for the superstar player and build around them for their chance at success. The NBA is moving towards super teams, the likes of the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, possessing as many elite players as possible. Football does the same, but mostly hoping to find the next superstar through the draft. The Nashville Predators and the NHL are no different.

Teams that do not have elite talent on their roster fail to make the playoffs. They may have one player that is top-tier, but it takes star players around them to make it work. Take a look at the reigning champions Pittsburgh Penguins. Sidney Crosby may lead the show, but Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Hornquist and Jake Guentzel take pressure off of him due to their star-talent.

And, of all teams in the NHL, the Predators have the most star power.

Studies show…

It is not just an opinion, but a stat-supported fact. The Nashville Predators have the most star points of any team in the league. An independent (meaning, not mine) study of the stats proves it.

There are many sites that fans gravitate toward when looking for stats and information. Hockey Graphs is one of the most popular. An article from July 2016 put together a formula to access total game score for a player. The stat combines goals, primary assists, secondary assists, shots on goal, blocked shots, penalty differential, faceoffs, 5-on-5 corsi differential, 5-on-5 goal differential. In other words, there is a lot of math involved.

Furthermore, the NBA site FiveThirtyEight did a similar stat-rich study to assess star power on each team. The idea was to say for every Michael Jordan, there is a Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant. Stars help stars become stars by winning championships. Even Batman needed Robin to help fight crime, as does the MVP-caliber player on any sports team.

That brings us to hockey. Using the game-score stat and the star-power study, Hockey News combined the information and applied it to the NHL. Their findings: the Predators have star power.

But who?

While the NBA study focused on three tiers, the roster of the NHL allows for five tiers. They are year-end award candidates (tier 1), players among best at position (tier 2), all-star level (tier 3), great players that compliment others above them (tier 4), and borderline stars (tier 5). Each tier is also assigned a percentage level related to that player’s game score versus the rest of the league. For example, if a player’s game score rates better than 96% of the league, they are a Tier 3 player.

Tier 1 = 98.5% or higher (5 star points)
Tier 2 = 96.5% to 98.5% (4 star points)
Tier 3 = 94% to 96.5% (3 star points)
Tier 4 = 91% to 94% (2 star points)
Tier 5 = 87.5 to 91% (1 star points)

The Nashville Predators have six players within these ratings, and all in Tier 4 or higher.

Tier 1 = P.K. Subban
Tier 2= Filip Forsberg, Viktor Arvidsson, Roman Josi
Tier 3 = Ryan Johansen
Tier 4 = Ryan Ellis

That is a great mix of offense and defense. And that is something not many other teams possess. For example, the Penguins have seven players with in the five tiers, but their only non-forward is goalie Matt Murray. Furthermore, they do not have any player considered Tier 3. The Washington Capitals also have seven players rated in these tiers, but four are in the lower tiers.

When you add it all up, the Nashville Predators earn 22 star points, best out of all the NHL. The Winnepeg Jets score 21, the Penguins 20, and the Capitals, Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins have 19.

Next: Five Most Anticipated Home Games of 17-18 Season

While it does not mean a championship, it sure does give the Predators confidence going into next season.