Nashville Predators: Sorting out the Complicated Future at Goaltender

Let’s state the obvious — the Nashville Predators have had their fair share of flaws over the past few seasons, and several decisions have cost them an opportunity at a Stanley Cup, which has been their dream since their surprise run in 2017. That being said, you cannot accuse them of lacking options in net.

The Nashville Predators have been blessed with riches between the pipes for the last decade plus, as Pekka Rinne was always one of the best goaltenders in the NHL and was undoubtedly the x-factor behind their aforementioned Cup run. His protégé, Juuse Saros, now owns the net and is on the same trajectory as Rinne, if not better.

That is not to mention Yaroslav Askarov, who is one of the more hyped goaltending prospects in quite some time, and Connor Ingram, who played in his first two games of his NHL career ust recently and played admirably.

It’s hard to have too many options in net, but is overloading this position truly maximizing the potential of this team?

Nashville Predators could turn a goaltender into other assets

Let’s get one thing right, Saros is not one of the Predators goaltenders who will be potentially up for trade. It is set in stone that he is the starter for now and the future. He’s not going anywhere, at least anytime soon.

Now let’s turn our attention to Askarov, and yes, many Predators fans will look at this and think that there is no way that they could part with the 11th-overall draft pick from 2020 who has as much potential as he does. But look at this team and their history before you squash the idea.

Have the Nashville Predators lacked quality options in net? No. Have they lacked elite talent on offense? Forever.

Sooner or later, General Manager David Poile has to at least think about taking a risk and focus less on keeping the puck out of his own net and focus on putting pucks in the opposing net.

Maybe it would not be such a bad thing to part with Askarov because the Predators could use him as part of a package for a superstar forward, or they could trade him for a haul of picks that could be used for future forwards.

Askarov isn’t getting as much consistent playing time overseas as you’d like to see right now. He has appeared in just five games and posted a 2.01 GAA as it’s a stacked roster ahead of him for SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL.

As for Ingram, he’s already notched a .948 save percentage over three games and a 56-save performance for the Milwaukee Admirals since his return from the NHL, although it came in a losing effort.

Furthermore, fans might rather see Ingram go, and by the way, don’t let his base statistics fool you. He was phenomenal in his debut, while going up against the elite duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in his next outing, so you have to expect such a raw player to struggle in such a situation in only his second NHL start.

If we are thinking which of the three young Predators goaltenders makes the most sense to trade at this point in time, it is Askarov without a doubt. You cannot even think about taking Saros out of his role, and Poile could not milk enough assets from other teams if he wanted to deal Ingram.

If Ingram, who has promise of his own, can continue to improve from where he is, the Predators will be just fine with a duo of him and Saros, and with the return from a potential Askarov trade, maybe they get the push up front that they finally need to get over the top.

And honestly, they would be fine if they did what they did this past offseason and just sign a guy like David Rittich for cheap in future seasons.

Obviously, right now is way too early for the team to make any decisions such as these, as much of this depends on how Ingram progresses. This is looking further down the road past this current season, which is the Saros and Rittich show for now.

But with the way Ingram has started his career, you have to at least think about dealing him or Askarov eventually to try to gain multiple assets via trade that can boost your team in other key areas.