Nashville Predators Protection List Goes the Side of Youth and Upside

Just one day after trading Ryan Ellis, the Nashville Predators went further down the road of shaking up the core of their roster with their protection list for the Expansion Draft.

There was no surprise to see Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm and Juuse Saros protected. Those were locks, but the rest of the list really goes on the side of youth and a fresh, new era of Predators hockey.

The Predators are exposing a lot of veteran players, in particular their forwards, to Wednesday’s expansion draft. Here are some of the players that stand out on the unprotected list:

• Calle Jarnkrok
• Colton Sissons
• Matt Duchene
• Ryan Johansen
• Rocco Grimaldi
• Rem Pitlick
• Nick Cousins

The top two on that list, Sissons and Jarnkrok, seem to be the most likely selections for the Seattle Kraken.

Here’s a look at the full protection list:

Welcome to the Nashville Predators rebuild

The Predators went the more unconventional route of protecting five defenseman, sending a clear signal that they don’t really value their forwards like most other teams do, and have much more faith in Alexandre Carrier, Dante Fabbro and newly-acquired Philippe Myers.

The other acquisition in the Ellis trade, Cody Glass, is exempt from this expansion draft and doesn’t require protection. Another key factor of many from the Ellis trade.

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I do like that the Predators are protecting Luke Kunin as well. Another young player that played a vital role for the Predators down the stretch. He could very well end up getting top-six minutes and increase from his 14 minutes of average ice time in his first season with Nashville.

The cliché might really ring true here for the Nashville Predators; take a few steps back to eventually take several steps forward. But the immediate future could end up getting pretty bumpy.

Sissons, Jarnkrok, or maybe Duchene?

It’s almost a foregone conclusion that the Seattle Kraken will select one of those forwards, and my original prediction has always been Colton Sissons.

Pitlick and Yakov Trenin are the only two younger players that I could see Seattle taking, but that would be another huge surprise for them to be taken over Sissons or Jarnkrok.

The biggest surprise to the Predators’ protection list is Tanner Jeannot. A player who still has a lot to prove on the NHL level, but certainly raised a lot of eyebrows with his energy on the fourth line last season.

Jeannot being protected over Sissons or Jarnkrok really sends a clear message that this team is prepared to go much younger in 2021-22. Seattle is in a position to take a veteran forward from the Predators, and Sissons or Jarnkrok seem to be the likely choice.

However, there’s still an outside chance that Johansen or Duchene get selected by Seattle.  As much as everyone wants to unload one of these two big contracts, losing another key veteran would even further make this a young and inexperienced team for next season.

Nashville Predators General Manager David Poile has called this a “competitive rebuild”. Take that for what it is, but this protection list has sent a pretty clear signal that this is a rebuild we’re entering, and we should embrace it as such and hope the youth gets the development to get this team back to being a Stanley Cup contender in the next few years.