FINAL THOUGHTS
Everything hinges on what happens with Forsberg. Everything else will start falling into place once the Predators take care of this top priority of ensuring their all-time leading goal scorer sticks around, even if you have to overpay him a bit.
After that, it looks like more youth will be injected into the lineup next season. Look for the Predators to be rather active in free agency this summer.
Per Spotrac, the Nashville Predators have the ninth-most cap space in the NHL at $24.15M. A large chunk of that will be tied up in Forsberg, but the Predators will still have room to operate and be a little aggressive.
The Predators can’t keep settling for average and just making the playoffs. That’s the overall source of the disdain from the fanbase right now. The fans should want more, but for that to happen then eventually the front office is going to have to stop sticking with the status quo and make some bold decisions.