Nashville Predators Prospect Profile: David Farrance Stock Rising

One of things that really stood out from the Nashville Predators Future Stars Game on Thursday night was 22-year-old defenseman David Farrance.

Farrance was drafted back in 2017 in the third round by the Nashville Predators and has gradually developed into a promising defenseman while playing collegiately at Boston University since being drafted.

This has seemed to have been the perfect development path for Farrance as he played at a very high level for a respected NCAA program, including acquiring the “Assistant Captain” tag for his final season at Boston University.

The long journey to the Nashville Predators roster

In 2019-20 Farrance really broke out with his offensive part of his game by posting 43 points over 34 games.

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Farrance’s skating and puck handling really stood out in the Future Stars Game. He looked like a leader out there captaining his line as his respective Team Gold squad won the game 5-2.

Now to look towards the upcoming season, it’s expected that he’ll initially start off in the AHL for the Milwaukee Admirals. This will be his first professional hockey action of his playing career, aside from two games with the Predators this past season where he actually looked comfortable beyond his years under that spotlight.

I think it’s only a matter of “when” and not “if” Farrance once again gets in the Predators lineup this season. The Predators defensive core is a bit cluttered currently with veterans like Matt Benning, Ben Harpur and Mark Borowiecki.

You’ve also got the offseason acquisition of Philippe Myers, who comes here via the Ryan Ellis trade and even got protected in the expansion draft. Myers will almost certainly be in the starting lineup in the season-opener.

Many, including myself, feel that Farrance is ready to get regular NHL minutes. This is why the re-signing of Harpur for one year, $800K was so perplexing. They would’ve been fine to just let Harpur walk, but here we are with another defensive roster spot taken up.

Be that as it may, I’m on board with initially starting Farrance with the Admirals to start the season so that we can see him in AHL action. Since he’s already 22-years-old and had four years of solid development on the NCAA level, I don’t think the Predators have to be super cautious about calling him back up to the NHL again.

Scott Nichol, Director of Player Development for the Nashville Predators, had some glowing praise for Farrance in his observations of Development Camp, per the Predators official team website:

“Now, you see him at Development Camp here, he’s lost some weight, he’s leaned out a little bit and just looks a lot more confident.” Scott Nichol, Predators Director of Player Development

It won’t hurt Farrance in the slightest to start off with what figures to be a very talented Admirals team. I’d like to see him emerge as a team leader for the Admirals defensive core and fill in for what was Alexandre Carrier‘s role for that squad before he eventually got the call-up and earned his regular spot, now alongside Roman Josi presumably.

Now if the Predators really look horrid out of the gate defensively and need some offensive flare out of this group, then Farrance will be worthy of a call-up before things get out of hand too quickly.

There won’t be any surprises from me if Farrance eventually takes a spot from one of the defensive veterans and moves onto a line with either Myers, or even Benning if he manages to stick around.

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The Predators are rebuilding by every account, so if you have a talented prospect like Farrance ready in their development to contribute, then you definitely don’t keep hiding them in the minor league ranks for too long.

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