Behind the Bench: Possible Futures for Nashville Predators

It isn’t lost on Nashville Predators fans that there are many many issues for the 2021 version of the team.

Whether it’s the team assembled, or the system they’re playing in, something just isn’t right. It’s one thing for it to be a down year, but another when the team looks like a full on implosion, only competitive when it’s too little too late, and losing to teams it should be able to beat, or at the least, compete with.

Say what you want about the roster, but it contains players who have had a decent amount of success at the NHL level, and some very talented youth that have achieved at every other level prior to their arrival in Nashville.

One question posed by the Predlines writers after Thursday night’s loss to the Florida Panthers, is “What is John Hynes saying in the locker room to try and right the ship?” However, the follow-up question that was posed is even more intriguing: “What if it doesn’t matter what he says, because the team isn’t listening?”

To be clear, we’re not in the locker room. We don’t know what is or isn’t being said. But, when the only consistency you see, night in and night out, is the same mistakes seemingly being committed over and over again, bad habits not being broken, and what I would say is a roster underachieving (more so than lacking talent), it has to fall on someone, and more often than not, that someone is the head coach.

I don’t know what Hynes’ future looks like, but based on the current trajectory of a once consistent and successful franchise hungry to reach the pinnacle of professional hockey, I don’t see him being the guy to get them there.

So, let’s explore some options if the Nashville Predators were to make a change behind the bench.