Nashville Predators: Grading David Poile’s 2022 Offseason Moves after 20 Games

We’re already past the quarter mark of 2022-23, and the Nashville Predators are right around where many would’ve expected them to be in the standings despite a pretty uninspired start.

The Nashville Predators front office and General Manager David Poile made it abundantly clear over the offseason that they’re not interested in any sort of a rebuild and instead are focused on winning now.

After suffering the franchise’s first ever sweep in the postseason at the hands of the eventual Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche, Poile admirably shouldered much of the blame and made good on it by having an aggressive offseason approach.

It very much feels like Poile’s last stand to get the Nashville Predators back into a respectable upper tier position in the NHL pecking order. They’ve fallen to irrelevancy over the past three or four years.

Let’s grade the offseason moves now that we’re 20-plus games in.

Nino Niederreiter:  B

I have to be honest here; I’m a little underwhelmed so far by the impact Niederreiter is making on the Nashville Predators. He hasn’t been what I would call a bust, but I did expect a little more return on investment, and it could still pay off down the stretch.

Niederreiter is signed for three years at $4M. Not a massive contract so there’s nothing to shield your eyes over like the past contract disasters of Kyle Turris, or the current two of Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene.

I would like to see Niederreiter become a little bit more of an impact player offensively. We can’t sweep it under the rug that the Predators are a liability offensively. However, they do have the occasional clutch goal scoring ability like when Mikael Granlund scored with just 10 seconds left in regulation to eventually get the win over the New Jersey Devils.

The fact is, Niederreiter is on a current five-game pointless streak. You can’t have that from a top-six forward that was considered a vital addition in the offseason.

Niederreiter obviously is a two-way player that does many other things well. That’s why he still gets a respectable “B” grade. I breezed my way through college with B’s, so nothing to scoff at.

As Mom used to say, I’d still like to see you push for that “A”.

Ryan McDonagh: B+

This one really hurts considering the recent news of McDonagh heading to injured reserve after taking a puck to the face in the last game, a win over the New York Islanders, shown here from Alex Daugherty’s tweet of AtoZSports:

Just a warrior mentality from McDonagh, and the Predators are no doubt going to miss his presence. Especially on special teams and the penalty kill.

McDonagh doesn’t do all of the flashy offensive stuff like Roman Josi does. But they were proving to be a highly effective defensive pair, giving up zero goals in over 126 minutes of ice time.

It took some time to identify this as a perfect defensive pairing, but once McDonagh returns to action the Predators clearly have something to go back to.

I’m giving this a B+, with the full expectation that as the season rolls on it can become an A+ if it pushes the Predators back into the postseason and gives us a shred of hope to actually win in the first round again.

Kevin Lankinen: A+

Poile looks like a genius right now with the addition of Lankinen as Juuse Saros’ backup. The Predators have not one, but two, goaltenders who are worthy of being anyone’s primary starter. A huge luxury to have.

Lankinen is among the NHL’s best in terms of Goals Saved Above Expected despite only being a backup. He is ahead of such top end goaltenders as Igor Shesterkin, Darcy Kuemper, Jake Oettinger, and yes, even Juuse Saros.

Is this sustainable? Who knows, but up to this point he is giving the Predators a trusted backup option in net that is playing just as well, if not better, than Saros.

Where would the Predators be right now if David Rittich or Connor Ingram were the backup over Lankinen? They would at least have another two or three losses to what has already been an up and down season.

If we get a locked in and fresh Saros down the grind of the regular season thanks to Lankinen’s reliable backup duties, this move will be an A+ no doubt. The Predators need Saros at his best level both to make the postseason and also to somehow get over the first round hump.

Zach Sanford: D

Ok, I’ll eat some crow here. I was pretty low key excited about the Sanford addition before a regular season game was played. I loved his pedigree of playing with winning teams and thought he’d become a mainstay, much like Jankowski is now, to the bottom six.

Sanford had one highlight reel goal to show for it, and then basically nothing else but wasted minutes and bad penalties. The last straw was a late penalty against the Coyotes that could’ve cost the Predators the game. Instead, the penalty kill came up strong, but that didn’t save Sanford. He was sent to waivers and not picked up.

Since being sent down to Milwaukee, Sanford has five games, one assist and 17 penalty minutes. Unless a rash of injuries occur, I don’t see Sanford returning to the NHL lineup. Swing and a miss here, but it looked good in theory at the time.

Filip Forsberg: B

I’m going with a conservative grade on this one because it’s so tough to answer this now. But I will say, I think Forsberg has another level he can take it to.

It’s no secret that the Predators power play is one of the worst in the NHL currently, and Forsberg has just two power play goals to contribute. Of course it’s fair to expect more.

All that was talked about going into the offseason was re-signing Forsberg and not letting him walk for nothing. Poile missed that chance when the trade deadline passed. Instead he chose to forge ahead, and even though the team did sneak into the playoffs, it ended in a sweep.

One thing is clear; if Forsberg wasn’t on this current Predators team, they would be even worse, I’m talking down at the bottom with the Coyotes and Blackhawks battling for Central Division misery.

Forsberg is likely a career Nashville Predator now, and now he has to prove he can be a vital piece to push this team further than a first round. Start competing realistically for Stanley Cups. I give this re-signing a B because Poile had to do it, but I need more from Forsberg. He needs to be on the franchise player level status, and he’s not there right now.