How the Nashville Predators Have Trended over Past Five Years

The Nashville Predators are almost a completely different team now than they were during the 2018-19 season. There have been two coaching changes, a new General Manager, and several new faces on the ice for the team that calls Smashville home.

In fact, many of these changes have occurred just in the last six-plus months dating back to the March NHL trade deadline. Many fan-favorites, including Mattias Ekholm and Tanner Jeannot were traded away for draft picks and one player, Tyson Barrie, who is currently a starter.

I’m going to dissect the last three full NHL seasons that the Predators have had and do a little comparison on their statistics over that time. Now, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a gap as the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons were affected by the outbreak.

For the purposes of this comparison, we will focus on the 2018-19, 2021-22, and 2022-23 seasons. Let’s get right to it.

2018-19 Central Division Champions: Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators of 2018-19 was the best team over the past three full seasons in my opinion, not counting the shortened pandemic years. They had an overall record of 47-29-6 (100 points) and finished in first place in the Central Division.

Ryan Johansen led the team in points that season with 64 in 80 games. The Predators may not have had anyone come close to the 100-point mark that season however they were deep with11 players tallying 30 or more points, and ten players with double digits in the goal column.

Even though the team only had 236 goals with a league average of 244, the combination of Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros held opponents to only 212 goals against for the Nashville Predators.

Diving a little deeper, the Predators had their worst power play percentage since their inaugural season, 1998-99, at 12.94%. During that first season of NHL hockey in Smashville, the Predators had a power play percentage of 12.35%.

The Nashville Predators only have five players from this season on their roster for the 2023-24 season; Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg, Colton Sissons, Dante Fabbro, and Saros.

Even though they won their division, the Predators faced an early exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs after being eliminated by the Dallas Stars in six games in the first round. A major disappointment following a President’s Trophy the year before.

2021-22 Nashville Predators: Barely Squeaking In

The 2021-22 season was a remarkable one, on an individual level, for a lot of players on the Predators roster. They saw Josi put up 96 points, Forsberg and Matt Duchene both scoring over 40 goals, and Tanner Jeannot notch 24 goals and 17 assists.

So many career years, and yet the standings overall signaled a team going in the wrong direction.

That season, the Predators tied for 5th in the NHL on the power play with an astounding 24.4% success rate. Forsberg led the team on the power play with seven goals.

Seeing as how scoring goals has, for the most part, been a struggle for this team, finishing tied for 12th in the league in goals scored with 262 was quite the accomplishment. One area that hindered this team quite a bit was goaltending.

Relying on David Rittich as a back-up to Saros was not successful. Rittich started in 12 games and played in 17, allowing 49 goals on 431 shots, and having just a .886 save percentage.

Having to lean on Saros as much as they did, something happened late in the season that I think all Predators fans were very concerned about.

On April 26, 2022, the Nashville Predators suffered a devastating blow when, during the third period against the Calgary Flames, Saros went out with a high ankle sprain and missed the remainder of the regular season and playoffs.

That year the Predators faced the strong Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the playoffs as overwhelming underdogs. The Predators got swept by the Avalanche, only managing to score nine goals in four games yet giving up 21 goals. The first time in franchise history that the Predators were swept.

Rittich played in one game and allowed five goals on 13 shots during that series.

Connor Ingram got the nod after Rittich’s abysmal play and finished the series with a respectable .913 save percentage. The play in front of these goalies, the lack of scoring, and the quick speed of the Colorado Avalanche is what led to the early exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs for this 2021-22 Nashville Predators team.

2022-23 Nashville Predators… Playoff Streak Ended

During the 2022-23 season, many Predators fans, myself included, had high expectations. We had everyone healthy, got to start the season off with the NHL Global Series, and added some players to the lineup that should help down the stretch, like Nino Niederreiter and Ryan McDonagh.

That turned out to be, however, far from the case. Now granted the Preds started off good with back-to-back wins overseas but they couldn’t seem to put wins together after that, losing their next five contests.

Putting together win streaks of three or more games only six times over the course of the season and only three of those streaks with all games being won in regulation, the Predators gave up a lot of points to their opponents even when they did win.

Combine that with a five-game and six-game losing streak, it was an abysmal season for the Predators. One that culminated in Head Coach John Hynes being let go eventually at the offseason, and a major sell-off at the trade deadline.

Steller goaltending performances by Saros and Kevin Lankinen are the only thing that kept them in contention for a playoff spot late in the season. The lights out goaltending tandem posted a remarkable combined .918 save percentage and 2.72 goals against average.

On the other end of the ice though, the Predators ranked 27th in goals for with only 229 in 82 games. One season removed from an astounding five players scoring over 20 goals, Matt Duchene was the lone Predator to score more than 20 in this season.

Late in the season, the Predators were faced with multiple injuries to their lineup and relied heavily on AHL regulars in their final push to the playoffs.

Valiantly, the young guns came up short in their rally and ended up missing the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons.

The silver lining to all of this is an emerging prospect pool that didn’t back down to NHL pressure, most notably Luke Evangelista and Thomas Novak.