Nashville Predators: These Players Are Facing the Most Pressure Entering Season

As a whole, the Nashville Predators are facing a lot of pressure this upcoming season. However, these players are facing the most pressure.

It’s fair to say that the Nashville Predators are in the midst of getting turned back around into a positive direction. They’ve been going in reverse over the last two seasons, most recently with a first-round playoff exit. The bar is set way too high in Nashville to be going home in the first round.

The talent on the roster also tells me there’s no excuse to be eliminated in the first round. I can argue the Nashville Predators are facing some of the most pressure in the league heading into the season. They came up way short, lost some key pieces, have some new pieces joining them and have some players that are under-performing.

I have a list of Nashville Predators players who are entering the season in hot water. They have to step up and produce. Prove that they can be counted on in key moments, most notably in the postseason. I ran a Twitter poll on this very topic, and thank you to the readers for giving me a good number of votes. Here’s the results:

The Predators are going to most likely return to the postseason again this year, but how they get there and how far they go hinges on how these players respond to the pressure they’re facing.

Kyle Turris

Let’s start with the elephant in the room that is Kyle Turris. He has these lofty expectations set for him mainly due to his enormous contract. One that I believe is one of GM David Poile’s few misses.

You can’t blame Turris for getting paid, but you can be extremely disappointed in his lack of production. Failing to find a trade partner for him yet, the Predators now have to find a place for him on the roster. Is it possible he bounces back in a big way this coming season? Of course it is, but it’s hard to feel confident in that happening. He’s going to be under a huge microscope on opening night of the regular season.

Turris doesn’t necessarily have to pile on the goals out of the gate, but he does need to be productive in some way. That might mean just getting quality shots on goal, tallying some assists and not being a liability on the ice. So many of his numbers were career lows, or near career lows, last season. We don’t need him to be an elite scoring machine, but we do need him to make his teammates around him better and find a productive place on this roster.

Mikael Granlund

Granlund seemed almost non-existent after he joined the Predators at the beginning of March. He never really found a groove with his new squad on the all-important second line. Now the hope is a full offseason will allow him to come in very comfortable with Peter Laviolette’s system.

Although a low sample size, Granlund’s 0.31 points per game while with the Predators is the lowest of his career since his first season. How much of that is getting accustomed to a new team, or is it something else? Is he just not a good fit in Nashville? We’ve seen players thrive in one organization only to fall backward after being traded. This puts him under the spotlight out of the gate.

It’s also a contract year for Granlund, so he’s playing for a big payday. He’s going to likely be playing alongside Matt Duchene, so the scoring opportunities will be ample. He can’t be another no-show, otherwise, we will have to chalk this up as a wasted trade losing Kevin Fiala. Fiala was wildly inconsistent, but there’s no denying his high ceiling.

I’m still hopeful that Granlund comes in looking more like he did in Minnesota at the beginning of last season. You can’t make vast proclamations based on just 16 games with a new team. I do think he looked mildly better in the playoffs, even though his playoff goal was a little on the fluky side. He’ll be a critical piece of the second line, and should be one of the top goal scorers behind Duchene, Filip Forsberg, and Viktor Arvidsson.

Rocco Grimaldi

Grimaldi isn’t on the same level as Turris and Granlund, but I do think he’s facing an elevated amount of pressure to prove last season wasn’t a fluke. He was lightning in a bottle and was a fun player to watch in the bottom-six. Now he has to show that he can be relied upon as a regular on the roster. His career sample size is still very small, with barely more than a full regular season slate.

Last season Grimaldi flew in under-the-radar. He was flying around all over the ice creating scoring chances and igniting the crowd. Now he’s trying to stick around full-time on the Predators roster. He’s trying to avoid being a healthy scratch on a regular basis. He still has a lot to prove to Laviolette to reserve a spot for him on the fourth or third line.

Grimaldi won his arbitration hearing and earned himself a $1 million contract for one year. More than what the Predators probably wanted to commit. I think he’s worth that deal, but now he has to stick on the roster. His next contract will be very lucrative if he continues to trend upward and be a spark that can flip the ice and create breakaway scoring chances.

Juuse Saros

It’s easy to understand why Saros is facing so much pressure. He’s trying to fill the shoes, or skates, of the great Pekka Rinne. He has all the tools and talent to be just as good as Rinne, and maybe even better when it’s all said and done. There’s no reason to feel nervous about his progression, but he does have to being to start taking on more of the load as a regular starter.

Saros has been gradually moved in as the eventual replacement to Rinne. He’s been brought on as the starter on the second night of back-to-backs on most occasions. In other instances he comes in when Rinne is having a bad night. In those instances, the pressure is pretty low because the game is usually already out of hand. Now Saros has to start showing that he is ready to be the primary goaltender. He has to show that for a franchise that has always had elite goaltending, and he has to carry on that torch. There’s a lot of pressure in that task.

In 31 games, Saros put up a 2.62 GAA and a save percentage of .915. Respectable numbers, but his high-danger save percentage of 80 slumped a bit relative to the rest of the league. That’s why we love Rinne, among many other reasons. He steps up and makes ridiculous saves that no human has business making. It’s helped Predators win many games they had no business winning.

Can Saros carry on those mythical saves that Rinne has made a career out of making? We’ll see plenty more of Saros, hopefully, closer to 40 games, this coming season. Is he truly ready to move ahead of Rinne? The last thing we need is a bad season from Saros, leaving the Nashville Predators uncertain about what to do at the expansion draft with Seattle coming in.