Jeremy Davies
The predominant fear among Predators fans is that the front office is going to continue to chase aging veterans and further backlog their prospect pipeline. I don’t think Poile can argue in doing that strategy anymore.
It’s time to elevate this budding NHL contributors and make more room in Milwaukee for other developing prospects who need that experience on that level.
Jeremey Davies was admirable, no pun intended, in his action for the Predators last season. He almost certainly got this chance due to the rash of injuries that the Predators defense suffered. Be that as it may, Davies played fairly well considering his age and inexperience.
The Predators are still trying to solve their defensive lineup issues outside of their main three of Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm. A trio that most teams would kill to have, but the other three slots have been a struggle to find consistency.
Davies is a player that has the talent and skills to fill into one of those three slots on a more regular basis. Most likely on third pairing assuming Dante Fabbro returns.
Davies’ NHL debut came on March 9 against the Carolina Hurricanes, back when the Predators’ season was tanking. In his second career NHL game he logged an impressive 22:19 of ice time as he worked out some of the jitters.
Training camp will be interesting as I see a lot of competition coming for the bottom pairing. Perhaps Ben Harpur sticks around, and you also have Mark Borowiecki and Matt Benning possibly. But Davies needs to be in that mix as well.