Five Reachable Goals for the Revamped Nashville Predators in 2023-24

Goal #1: Reestablish Who You Are and Where You’re Going

Seems extremely general and unclear, doesn’t it? But in reality, who really are the Nashville Predators? Good luck answering that as we sit at the end of July in 2023.

At the end of next season, whether that be after a playoff exit or falling short of the playoffs altogether, I need to know the path forward and who this team really is. I need a vision from the front office that is starting to take shape towards an eventual ascension into the class of team who legitimately have a high chance at the Stanley Cup.

Right now, we’re not sure who the Nashville Predators are, and that’s to be expected with a new General Manager, new Head Coach, and a lot of new players.

This is a reachable goal for this front office to push for, and it doesn’t even have to mean this team makes the playoffs in 2024, but that would be lovely of course. Instead, let’s start painting a picture and cleanse ourselves from the last few years of mediocrity and no direction.

What might that look like? A team that showcases its strengths, shows improvements in key areas that are vital ( like actually scoring goals and not needing Juuse Saros to give up no more than two goals per game), and see a fire behind the bench that John Hynes just didn’t show enough of.

Be a menace to play against again even for the NHL’s best teams.

Goal #2: A Top-10 Offense for the Nashville Predators

You may categorize this as a crazy goal that’s not going to happen, but I actually have some decent optimism that Andrew Brunette can make this a viable scoring team. A team that can win some games in the 5-4 variety.

A primary reason for this optimism is I’m fairly confident that the power play is going to show considerable improvement.

With a healthy Filip Forsberg returning (more on that later), the signing of Ryan O’Reilly, and another year of development for the youth core, this power play should look a lot better in 2023-24.

I’m looking for Luke Evangelista to make some noise coming into his first full year in the NHL after being a late season call-up in 2023 and quickly becoming a reliable offensive contributor.

If Evangelista gets top line minutes like he should to open up, then I like his chances to boost a stale Nashville power play that had the seventh-fewest power play goals at 5v4 and was among the bottom 10 teams in Expected Goals For at 5v4.

I’m also further optimistic with Tyson Barrie returning and being a power play quarterback, along with other power play specialists in Philip Tomasino, Cody Glass and, of course, Roman Josi.

One downside to this is three of the top-six power play point producers from 2022-23 are now gone; Matt Duchene, Mikael Granlund and Ryan Johansen.

Goal #3: Saros Finally Claims his First Vezina Trophy

It’s always been a matter of “when”, and not “if”, Juuse Saros will win a Vezina Trophy. In his two seasons of being the primary goaltender for the Nashville Predators after Pekka Rinne‘s retirement, he has been among the NHL’s elite goaltenders.

We’re in a golden age of elite goalies right now for the NHL. The question is, can the same goalies maintain consistency or will newcomers arise in the Vezina Trophy race in 2024?

This is why I have so much faith that Saros will eventually win a Vezina Trophy, and could very well be in 2024. He has shown he’s consistent and not a flash in the pan.

Saros should benefit from better goal support in this upcoming season, and if he can maintain the numbers he’s had the last two seasons, he’ll once again be in the Vezina Trophy conversation.

A big factor with this is how the team around him performs and if he can avoid taking too many losses or watch his save percentage plummet due to his team constantly taking bad penalties.

Over the last two seasons, Saros leads the NHL in saves with 3,862 and third in wins with 71, trailing Andrei Vasilevskiy and Igor Shesterkin.

Goal #4: Forsberg Returns Back to “ScoresBerg”, Has Career Year

Call me hopelessly optimistic, but I have this feeling that Forsberg is about to bounce back from his scary head injury suffered in February that ended his season, and he’s going to have around career high numbers offensively.

Let’s not have a quick loss of memory here and forget that Forsberg shattered his career high with 84 points and 42 goals just one season prior to last year. And before the head injury in February, Forsberg was just behind a point-per-game pace and enjoying his third-highest Points Per 60 total of 2.9.

If Forsberg is able to finish 2022-23 without the head injury, he was on pace to set his second-highest season point total in his career. Not to mention, the Nashville Predators probably win a few more games to make the playoffs.

With that said, there’s no reason to think Forsberg can’t return to being an efficient point producer and get back into that 70 to 80-point range. Especially with Ryan O’Reilly as an expected linemate.

To meet this goal for Forsberg, he first and foremost has to get some injury luck that’s out of anyone’s control. After that, it’s fair to want Forsberg to finish around 70-plus points and be a primary catalyst for the Predators to attain Goal #2 of being a top-10 offense.

Goal #5: Win a Playoff Series for the First Time Since 2018 Against Avalanche

Let me reiterate that this should not be the only goal for the Nashville Predators as a team. It should always be the ultimate goal of the Stanley Cup, but for the sake of this exercise, winning a playoff series would tie everything else together from the first four reachable goals.

The last time the Predators won a playoff series was the year they won the President’s Trophy and drew the Colorado Avalanche in the first round. The series win didn’t come easy despite being the favorites, but they got it done and went on to take the brutal Game 7 defeat to the Winnipeg Jets in the next round.

This current roster after the offseason moves and a continuing developing crop of young talent gives me fairly high confidence that getting to the second round isn’t a crazy expectations to have.

As many would agree, the coaching staff with Hynes leading the way just wasn’t meshing well. There were some core veterans that are now gone and didn’t bring the playoff clutch factor that you need to win a grueling seven-game series.

I’m circling back to how vital the O’Reilly signing can end up being. He’s the type of playoff clutch player that will be invaluable to pulling off a first round upset. And not just O’Reilly, but also Luke Schenn who has personal playoff success as well with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

And this will always hold true; if you have an elite caliber goalie in net, anything can happen. Saros is due to steal a series for the Nashville Predators. Mark it down.