Nashville Predators: How the Playoff Roster Should be Built

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.

Bottom-Six

Going to the third line, this is where I’m keeping Duchene. At least for now. Obviously things can change quickly in a playoff series, but initially I like keeping him on a third line that needs an offensive spark.

Duchene, even though his contract says he should be in the top-six, fits better in this spot alongside Erik Haula and Luke Kunin.

This line will be gritty and tenacious with their forechecking, but also have offensive capabilities with all three. Haula and Kunin have turned out to be solid offseason acquisitions by GM David Poile.

The combined goal output from these three players in the regular season is 25 goals, with a combined point output of 53. This line can definitely make some things happen in all areas of the ice.

Third Line: Haula/Duchene/Kunin

There’s really no reason for too much debate on the fourth line, or the infamously named “Herd Line”. Probably the most consistent line for the Predators all season has been their fourth line.

However, there is a tough decision to make on who gets the start after Mathieu Olivier has returned to the lineup and played in the season finale, registering just over 13 minutes of ice time.

This is a really difficult call for me to make, but I’m keeping the fourth line intact with Colton Sissons, Yakov Trenin and Tanner Jeannot. I just can’t take them out as starters despite Olivier being deserving as well to be a starter.

There’s no way I’m removing Jeannot out of the starting lineup after everything he’s done down the stretch of the season. He’s earned himself a full-time spot on the fourth line.

I definitely can’t see benching Sissons either with his playoff experience, so it really comes down to Trenin or Olivier. I like Trenin’s ability to score while also playing a physical game slightly more than what Olivier brings.

Either way, the Predators can’t go wrong here and the odd man out should be a healthy scratch.

This might come down to some players being interchangeable from game to game depending on how things are going and if Hynes sees the need to make a change based on individual performance.

Olivier, Rocco Grimaldi and Nick Cousins are my scratches heading into Game 1. I want them around to insert into the lineup if the Predators need to make adjustments, which means leaving out veteran Brad Richardson.

As mentioned earlier regarding Arvidsson’s injury, if he can’t go in Game 1 then Grimaldi is the first player I’d move in to play on the third line and take Kunin’s spot.

Fourth Line: Trenin/Sissons/Jeannot

Scratches: Olivier, Grimaldi, Cousins

Defensive Pairings

The Nashville Predators will once again roll with their dynamic duo up top with Roman Josi and Ryan Ellis. Two players who have been in this situation several times, and are ready to avenge the last three playoff appearances that have come up disappointingly short of expectations.

The second pairing you can make an argument for who to pair with Mattias Ekholm, but I’m going with Alexandre Carrier. Carrier is another young spark on this team that has earned their spot in the lineup.

That means moving down Dante Fabbro to the third pairing to play alongside Matt Benning. This is such a major upgrade from the bottom pairing situation that the Predators dealth with last season.

Fabbro and Benning need to avoid the costly turnovers in the defensive zone and just play smart. I trust they can do that in this role.

That means that Ben Harpur and Erik Gudbranson are staying off my playoff roster. I’ve liked what I’ve seen out of Benning in that third pairing role more than Harpur and Gudbranson.

Defensive pairings: Josi/Ellis, Ekholm/Carrier, Benning/Fabbro

A lot of credit is owed to Hynes and Poile for having the confidence to keep this lineup together past the trade deadline and forge ahead despite a lot of belief in the team needing to sell.

I actually really like how I deep this lineup as become. There’s a lot of different pieces that can contribute to the Predators being able to make this series a highly competitive one.

There’s also this logjam of forwards that makes it difficult to leave out players like Grimaldi, Cousins and Olivier. The defensive pairings are pretty straightforward for me, but it’ll be interesting to see which way Hynes goes with his forwards.