Nashville Predators: How the Playoff Roster Should be Built
By Chad Minton
The 56-game regular season is complete for the Nashville Predators, and now the focus shifts on avoiding another first-round playoff exit. The team is competing in their seventh-straight postseason, but are still in pursuit of that elusive first Stanley Cup.
The Predators roster was injected with youth this season due to a rash of injuries midseason while the team was in a tailspin.
Just as the Predators turned their season around, the youth of the team played well to reignite the playoff hopes. Now the Predators have a good problem to have with a fairly deep roster to trim down for the playoffs.
This leaves Head Coach John Hynes with the difficult task of deciding who gets on the postseason roster. There’s going to be some players left off that are well-deserving of a starting role. Most notably in the group of forwards.
As we await the Predators to unveil their playoff roster, here’s how I would construct it if I’m in Hynes’ position. And full disclosure, this took some deep thought as you can make arguments for several different line combinations.