Mailbag: Troubled Nashville Predators, Lackluster Product

To no surprise, the Nashville Predators are a troubled hockey club right now. Through 27 games and being seven points back of a Wild Card spot, to Predators fans it’s their proverbial last straw for how Nashville has been playing lately.

Another burdensome issue being four defensemen are currently out with an injury for the Predators, i.e. Ryan McDonagh, Mark Borowiecki, Alexandre Carrier & Jeremy Lauzon.

A few responses express further displeasure in the Predators after seeing Eeli Tolvanen being claimed on waivers on Monday by Seattle and Nashville dropping their last four games.

“This team CANNOT DEVELOP forwards to save their own [butt], Forsberg-Washington, Granlund-Minnesota, Duchene-Colorado, Johansen-Columbus, Niederreiter-Minnesota/New York Islanders. The best they’ve had so far is Sissons, but that’s not saying a lot. There’s a trend here” – Donovan.

Well, to note there are a few Nashville Predators forwards who have come through in their playing careers and done better than Sissons.

Craig Smith put up 330 points in 661 games for the Predators while Viktor Arvidsson scored 239 points in 385 contests. Both forwards were drafted by Nashville.

The Predators’ fair share of drafted forwards has not panned out the way fans have wanted. It doesn’t mean they’ve had zero players become something over the course of 24 seasons.

In the last five seasons, only Philip Tomasino and now Juuso Parssinen have skated at the NHL level since being drafted.

Extend that number to 10 seasons and the Predators have had 19-of-69 drafted players skate in at least one NHL game since the 2013 Draft.

There are 10 skaters that Nashville has drafted in that window who now are no longer part of the organization.

No skaters from the last three drafts for the Predators have made it to the NHL level, but three are currently in Milwaukee (Yaroslav Askarov, Luke Evangelista & Philip Tomasino).

“We always hear about how good they are in Milwaukee and then they flame out in Nashville. It’s why Poile needs to go. He refuses to change the way he drafts so we get the same small forward who never thrives in the NHL.” – Joel

Out of the 69 drafted players since 2013, there have been 12 who have played at least 72 games in the NHL with the highest being former Predator Seth Jones (675 GP).

As far as those 12 skaters go only Juuse Saros, Yakov Trenin, Alexandre Carrier, Dante Fabbro, & Philip Tomasino remain in Nashville’s organization.

The rest have either been waived, traded, or allowed to walk after an expiring contract.

Most of Nashville Predators General Manager David Poile’s transactions for NHL-caliber talent have come via trade or free agency.

“I hate to say this, but I think it is time to clean house and rebuild this team. Nothing seems to be going right for this team. I am behind them in the good or the bad.” – Caleb

When Poile has $33 million invested into his top offensive performers for at least the next two seasons and currently sits in 29th in goals for per game that’s not what anyone would want.

Duchene and Forsberg scored 40 goals last season and have less than 10 goals through 27 games. That has created a major conundrum in Nashville.

The powerplay has suffered as of late too. Before the Predators play the Winnipeg Jets Nashville has gone 2-for-19 on the man advantage this month.

Time will tell when a change comes, whether that be at the top with David Poile, the coaching staff, or player personnel.

In the meantime, this is what the Predators are and will continue to be until someone changes the narrative.