Nashville Predators: Important Takeaways from Training Camp
By Chad Minton
Nashville Predators have inexperience in their depth
This isn’t anything new necessarily, but it’s pretty obvious that the Predators will be relying on a lot of youth in their depth in both their forwards and defensively.
The rise of Egor Afanasyev and Philip Tomasino this offseason and training camp has made for an interesting decision for Hynes to make on whether or not to fast track them to the NHL, or give them some time to develop more on the AHL level.
It comes down to how much Hynes leans towards the safe route of going with a veteran like Nick Cousins or Rocco Grimaldi, or throwing someone like Tomasino right into the fire.
Tomasino just dazzled everyone with maybe the goal of the preseason with his overtime game-winner on Tuesday, and he has one more chance to impress even more in the last preseason game on Saturday.
One thing seems pretty clear; the depth will be constantly changing at first as the season progresses. Who we see on opening night might quickly become a healthy scratch. Tomasino and Afanasyev are not waiver eligible, so they can be moved up and down without the concern of someone else claiming them.
It’s going to be a fluid process sorting out the bottom six and the bottom defensive pairing, and is a contributing factor to why the preseason expectations are low for the Predators. But if they strike gold quickly with someone like Tomasino, then those expectations might quickly rise.
Growing pains are likely, though. It’s going to require some patience and tinkering with the lineup each game to find what’s really working consistently.