Final Thoughts as Nashville Predators zero in on 2025-26 Opening Night Roster

With a tense contract negotiation with Luke Evangelista overshadowing Nashville Predators training camp, we finally have what looks like will be the opening night roster when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets on October 9 at Bridgestone Arena.

The Predators have officially gotten the training camp roster down to 25 players, with injured Nicolas Hague and Matthew Wood possibly heading to injured reserve to open the season. This leaves the decisions remaining on who gets healthy scratched and who ends up on what lines.

The latest roster cuts saw Zachary L'Heureux get sent down to the AHL Milwaukee Admirals, which may come as a surprise to some fans considering L'Heureux played in 62 NHL games last season, logging five goals and 10 assists. Having waiver exemption status probably plays a big role into this decision because there's no risk in losing the player and calling him back up later in the season.

Nashville Predators prepare for preseason finale with most of their training camp roster already set for the regular season

With L'Heureux getting sent down, it leaves the windown open for Ozzy Wiesblatt to start the season in the NHL. A pretty big development and what I would consider the biggest surprise pick from training camp along with fifth-overall pick Brady Martin sticking around until the end.

Wiesblatt made it into five NHL games last season in his NHL debut and has impressed coaches ever since he first came here all the way back in June of 2024 in a trade that sent Egor Afanasyev to the San Jose Sharks. Just goes to show you how long some of these trades take to find out what you're really getting. We'll find out soon enough and maybe even be able to call that a huge win in the trade department if Wiesblatt plays a bunch of meaningful NHL games this season for the Predators.

Wiesblatt should fill a bottom-six role rather easily with his physical style of play and relentless puck battling abilities. Expect him to get into plenty of tussles with the other team as well. Also unlike L'Heureux, Wiesblatt was eligible for waivers, and the fear had to be that if he was put up for grabs that another team would swoop in like a thief in the night and claim him.

Then there's Martin, who obviously we can't overlook when giving final thoughts on Predators training camp. The top-five draft pick has lived up to the pressure in training camp and impressed Head Coach Andrew Brunette and his staff enough to start the NHL season in the lineup.

Martin is eligible for what they call the "Slide Rule" for prospects that are 18 and 19-years-old. They can play up to 10 NHL games without having to burn a year of their contract. In Martin's current example, the Predators are likely opting to get Martin nine NHL games out of the way now before sending him back to junior hockey for the remainder of 2025-26. After that, Martin can't be called back up back and forth like you can with a normal prospect playing in the AHL and waivers exempt.

This is why I've been fully onboard all season with starting Martin on the NHL level right out of the gate. I just don't see any downside to seeing what you have in your top-five pick who has shown immense confidence, leadership and raw talent. Giving him this initial taste of the NHL before he goes to play one more year of junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League just makes perfect sense.

Luke Evangelista is finally signed and ready to go, which took a spot away from Zachary L'Heureux for now; Svechkov, Kemell, Wiesblatt and Martin highlight the youth that will make it to opening night

However, there is still one more cut to make now that Evangelista finally signed to his new contract, worth $3 million AAV for two years. With Evangelista back in the mix, this puts the current Predators roster among their forwards at 14 players. You start 12 of them, and two are healthy scratches on opening night.

Matthew Wood is an interesting one we have to clear up, and thankfully it's PuckPedia to the rescue on this clarification. Since Wood was injured during training camp and hasn't played at least 50 NHL games yet, his cap hit is pro-rated based on number of days last year on the roster multiplied by the current year cap hit. So in other words, Wood is accounting for a whopping $94,010.

So with Wood not counting towards the 23 players right now, this leaves your 14 forwards and seven defensemen that I'm the Predators to carry into opening night. It turns our attention to Nick Blankenburg and Spencer Stastney as the final two defensemen to make the cut for now while Hague is out.

I hate to make a choice out of these two because I really like them both, but I'm taking Blankenburg over Stastney and hoping Stastney sneaks through waivers and back to Milwaukee if a decision down the road comes to that when Hague is ready to return. I think Stastney has a slightly better chance of clearing than I do Blankenburg. The reason being, Blankenburg has much more NHL experience than Stastney and actually had a really strong first year in Nashville last season.

We'll see both Stastney and Blankenburg in the preseason finale on Saturday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. Here's what the latest practice lines looked like on Friday, courtesy of Nashville Predators Radio Broadcaster Max Herz:

Tanner Molendyk has already been assigned back to his respective club, which will be his highly-anticipated Milwaukee Admirals debut. Blankenburg skated with Molendyk in Friday practice, while Stastney saw time with Justin Barron leaving an indication that your possible opening night

It will be a fluid process as it usually is early in the season on who starts and who gets the healthy scratch. I can see Stastney and Blankenburg being swapped out from game to game, and also even see Justin Barron getting swapped out occasionally. The top-four of the Predators defense looks more set with pairings of Adam Wilsby/Roman Josi and Brady Skjei/Nick Perbix.

I'm not saying this current lineup is going to win a ton of games and make last season an afterthought, but I do see it being much more exciting and more disciplined in the defensive zone. A lot of this bounce-back potential I've said all offseason first starts with protecting the defensive zone better and getting a Juuse Saros that we know can put up Vezina Trophy like numbers.

Down the road when Matthew Wood is back from injury, it will leave more tough decisions to make and possibly another player requiring waivers. Maybe newly-acquired Tyson Jost doesn't impress enough, or maybe they have to risk putting Wiesblatt on waivers. They'll also get a roster spot most likely open up when Martin plays out his nine games, which might hopefully line up with when Wood is healthy and able to return.