Fans among all different sports are usually in agreement that the Stanley Cup is one of the hardest trophies to win in all of the team sports, and the Nashville Predators haven't felt this far away from ever getting their first since going back to the early 2000's.
The Florida Panthers just achieved the rare feat of going back-to-back for the Stanley Cup. The franchise who only has 11 playoff appearances in their 31-year history suddenly has two Stanley Cups thanks to cunning chess moves by the front office over the past several years.
For the Predators, we all were drastically fooled by the 2017 run to the Stanley Cup Final into thinking that this team's window was wide open to win their first one soon. But instead, the franchise quickly trended spiraled downward thanks to awful front office moves and lackluster drafting.
Stanley Cup champions are never flukes or come out of nowhere
For the purpose of this piece, I decided to look back at every Stanley Cup champion since 2000 and see how that team did the previous year. The results might not shock the most diehard hockey fans out there, but every Stanley Cup champion since 2000 also had a really great season the year before.
In fact, there's not one team that finished below 90 points the previous year before winning their Stanley Cup, excluding the covid-shortened season of 2020-21 when the Avalanche had 82 points in just 56 games played. So do the math there, they were still dominant.
Most of these Stanley Cup champions finished in the high 90's range or into triple digits in points the season before. The magical run the Blues went on in 2018-19, they had 94 points the season before. So there are a few examples of teams that were on the playoff fringe the year before, and finally broke through with a Stanley Cup the following year.
However, the majority were already dominant franchise the year before they actually won the Stanley Cup.
You have to go all the way back to the New York Rangers Stanley Cup team of 1993-94 to find a good example of a team going from the basement to the penthouse in one year turnaround. They had 79 points the previous season and missed the playoffs.
Another example, although not as strong, is the 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes who won their only Stanley Cup that season follow the canceled lockout season of 2003-04. In the 2002-03 season, the Hurricanes had 76 points and missed the playoffs.
How long of a grind are we in for before we can start getting excited about the Nashville Predators competing for a Stanley Cup again?
All of this to say that Predators fans have to be prepared to be extremely patient, and that's a hard ask considering this fanbase has already shown the most painfully excruciating patience over the 26-year history. A lot of playoff appearances, and a lot of first-round exits. Compared to the Panthers only making the playoff 11 out of 31 years and the Predators 16 out of 26 years, I think we all know which franchise you'd rather be. The one with two Stanley Cups.
So how quick realistic fashion can the Predators get back to first being a playoff contender, and secondly being an actual threat to the upper tier teams once in the playoffs?
Unfortunately I think the very best-case scenario for next season, and this is quite frankly shooting for the moon, is somehow this team slithers their way into a wildcard spot thanks to a few veterans finding the fountain of youth similar to 2023-24 and Juuse Saros puts together a Vezina caliber campaign.
However, all that does is put us right back where we were beforehand, which is a first-round punching bag and missing out a top draft talent in the first round. We are stuck in the proverbial mud thanks to several years of horrible decisions by the front office. For every five moves they make, they miss on four of them.
I'm seriously looking a the Preators like a five-year plan. They need to obviously hit a home run with this year's first round picks. Not just their 5th overall pick, but also their other two first-round picks. Two of these three first-rounders need to eventually end up being high impact starters down the road. And they absolutely have to find a future top-six center prospect in this draft.
Other than this year's draft, General Manager Barry Trotz is going to have to be very wise in how he handles his projected $17 million in cap space with a rising salary cap upcoming.
Trotz is going to be tempted to spend more money on the free agent veterans to quickly turn this team from 30th in the overall standings to a playoff team again in 2025-26. He just cannot be reckless in how he does this, and the more safe option is to accept how far this franchise has fallen and start building that foundation that takes more than one year to build.
My realistic desire for the Predators next season is to show progress with their youth. We need newcomers taking on bigger roles and showing us they're part of the long-term plan. Seeing Jonathan Marchessault and Steven Stamkos settle in more comfortably and raise their levels of play to what they were before coming to Nashville would be nice too.
It's not foolish to think that maybe the Predators can be much better than they were last season, which it couldn't have gotten much worse, but also realize they're so far away from competing with the top dogs for a Stanley Cup. We can find a middle ground here and still be excited for this team if we know the front office is building a sturdy foundation through their prospect pool and drafting.
The recent report stating that Roman Josi's health is in question with a diagnosis of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, a condition he has developed stemming from the concussion he received on a hit from Sam Bennett last February. Josi still fully expects to be ready for the 2025-26 season, but this is obviously scary stuff dealing with the head and brain.
I go back to the original list of Stanley Cup winners dating back to 2000. There are no flukes in hockey when it comes to winning a Stanley Cup. Sure, you can fluke your way into winning a first round series on the back of a great goalie, but winning four series and surviving that grind, there are no impostures.
Just remember that if the Predators would've won the Stanley Cup over the Pittsburgh Penguins, they would've been a 94-point team that barely even snuck into the playoffs. But the year before they put together a 96-point season, and the year prior to that a 104-point season. They were an establish regular season team that had a window open.
Right now, that window is locked and sealed shut. It's going to take, at best, two or three years to even get it slightly cracked open. But let's embrace the journey and cheer on a new era of Predators hockey even if the team is going to be a non-contender for the foreseeable future.