With an all-time dismal season for the Nashville Predators franchise to reflect on, General Manager Barry Trotz is finally ready to address the media and answer some hard-hitting questions about the past, but more importantly the future.
The team has announced that Trotz will address the media on Monday, May 5 during a time when there are several head coaching vanancies around the NHL, but not including the 30th-place Nashville Predators. At least for now, they still officially have Andrew Brunette as their head coach.
It was a fast and furious season full of roster moves for Trotz. He has shown he isn't shy about making bold moves and going after the big fish in the pond of NHL free agency, and now the curiosity lingers on whether or not Trotz is going to do that again this offseason.
So here are the top points I'm looking to hear addressed from Trotz on Monday to give more clarity to the future, while I'm not so worried about reflecting on the past failures. We get it, he swung and missed. It's time to reveal the blueprint forward into 2025-26.
1. The elephant in the room, Andrew Brunette's job security
I need Trotz to put this to rest one way or the other just like I need oxygen and water right now. I'm sick of the speculation, and I'm growing exhausted over the constant bashing of Brunette. Not because he doesn't deserve the heat, but just because at this point it's beating a dead horse.
We get it, Brunette followed up a Jack Adam's runner-up season in Year 1 of his tenure with a nosedive off a cliff in Year 2. Is it fair to think that Trotz is going to give Brunette one more year to show that Year 2 was just the perfect storm of everything going wrong, and that Year 1 was more like what Brunette can give to this franchise?
I suspect that when Trotz opens up his statements on Monday, he'll first tackle this issue. I could be wrong, but I'm expecting him to put the speculation to rest and commit to Brunette as the head coach going into his third year behind the bench.
If Trotz was going to relieve Brunette of his head coaching duties, he would've already done it by now. There's nothing to wait on with this decision until Monday, and there's nothing else to learn. If Trotz is on the fence on Brunette as the right guy for the job in 2025-26, then he should've already made the decision to give Brunette the ol' pink slip.
Trotz is probably going to show his confidence and support in Brunette for 2025-26, while also setting the bar for what his expectations are for the team. And that gets me to my next point I'm hoping to learn more about from Trotz next week.
2. Set clear expectations for next season
I need Trotz to be crystal clear and brutally honest about his expectations for next season. No sugarcoating it, and no fantasies. Be realistic about how far off this team is from being a Stanley Cup contender again. The fans will appreciate that much more than making excuses.
This also ties into the decision to most likely retain Brunette for at least the start of 2025-26. If Trotz is keeping the bar high that the Predators can bounce back fast and prove that last season was a fluke, then he needs to also make sure that it's known that Brunette will be held accountable if the team stumbles out of the gate again.
Trotz has already eluded to his belief that he's "not in the business of not winning now". If he holds true to that, then he's probably going to do everything he can to at least add one more veteran this offseason to make that tweak that he's referred to already.
We should get some more clarity on how Trotz plans to use his cap space and how aggressive he plans to be in offseason free agency. The Predators currently have the sixth-most projected cap space in the NHL with $6.98 million per PuckPedia.
There also needs to be accountability for what happened this past season, but to tie that into what's changing from that in 2025-26. How is Trotz addressing virtually every player on the Predators having down years at the same time on offense?
3. The draft strategy after the lottery concludes
A big part of Trotz's press conference will be related to the Predators draft position after the lottery drawings are revealed. The Predators can land anywhere between the top overall pick and the fifth overall pick.
If by some miracle and gift from the hockey gods happens and the Predators win the overall top pick for the first time in franchise history, it will be interesting to see if Trotz tips his hand on who he wants or if the front office is still evaluating it. It won't be an easy choice, with there not being consensus agreement between 136-point scoring phenom Michael Misa and the steady and dynamic defenseman Matthew Schaeffer.
However, where the Predators land in the top-5 of the draft, Trotz will likely spend some time talking about current needs of the team and if they're looking to make some offseason trades using their heavy draft capital.
The Predators are sitting pretty with five picks in the top two rounds of the draft. I'm inclined to think that Trotz will at least move one of those picks to pick up an extra player through a trade that's ready to contribute instantly in 2025-26.
4. How will the team play different in 2025-26 and how will the youth fit into that?
I'm hoping that Trotz addresses this extensively; is he going to change his philosophy a bit and put more of a heavy load on the youth of the roster next season. Something the Nashville Predators organization has pushed off for years and years and instead have become the joke of the league as the team that's the "retirement home" for superstars past their primes.
I'm looking for Trotz to be detailed in the future young players who he sees as key pieces to building a new foundation for the future. Guys like Luke Evangelista, Fedor Svechkov and Zachary L'Heureux, while also going deeper into the prospect pool with Joakim Kemell, Adam Wilsby and Tanner Molendyk.
Even though I don't want Trotz to spend too much time dwelling on the past, I do want him to address if systematic changes are needed to be much improved next season. Or is he going to take the approach that it's not the system that was wrong, but maybe other factors like line chemistry, injuries or just plain bad puck luck.
It will be kind of weird if Trotz blames the system and says the team has to adopt a new way of playing while also saying that Brunette is coming back. That's why I think Trotz will double down on that it's not the system and it's not the players, and that it's other factors that just needs some tweaks.
Finally, I'm thinking Trotz is going to tell the fans that this team can bounce back fast in 2025-26 and that it will hinge heavily on the growth of the younger players. If he's truly going to trust them more than this franchise has done in the past, then it really does ride on guys like Svechkov, Evangelista and L'Heureux being ready to take on bigger roles.
I've always appreciated Trotz's candidness and genuine nature when it comes to answering questions for the fans. He needs to be open and painfully honest about the state of the organization. His stock is way down right now among fans, and he needs to give a thoughtful press conference to quell some fears and doubts.