If the Nashville Predators are going to prove their many critics and naysayers wrong in 2025-26, they're going to need Ryan O'Reilly and the centers lining up behind him to outperform low expectations.
O'Reilly is heading into his third season with the Predators and his 17th NHL season overall. Among active NHL players, he ranks 20th in games played with 1,152. His teammate, Steven Stamkos, is just ahead of his with 1,164 NHL games. Both will be in the Predators' top-six, and both could spend time together on that same line at some point.
As for O'Reilly, it's no secret that he's probably not a top center caliber player anymore at age 34, and will hit age 35 in February. But he's in a situation where the Predators really need him because quite frankly, they just don't have many options to turn to. That's not a knock on O'Reilly, it's just the facts.
Nashville Predators confirm that Ryan O'Reilly is their guy at the top going into 2025-26
Predators General Manager Barry Trotz in his media availability before training camp officially got underway this past week confirmed that O'Reilly is the team's top line center for at least the foreseeable future:
#Preds GM Barry Trotz says for now, the top-line center remains Ryan O'Reilly while the young players continue to develop. Trotz says 3-4 years down the road, he'd like to see all Nashville draft choices up the middle of the ice.
— Brooks Bratten (@brooksbratten) September 18, 2025
That's not really a surprise at all, but I do find it interesting that Trotz put an actual timeline on it of "three to four years down the road" in regards to his younger centers eventually taking over. That certainly includes Fedor Svechkov, who actually is already primed to be a key piece up the middle for Nashville this season.
O'Reilly can still be a very serviceable top center for Nashville for the place this franchise is currently in, which honestly speaking is a rebuild phase. You can call it a quick rebuild phase or switch to a lighter term like "retool" or "reset", but no matter how you slice it, they're rebuilding right now.
O'Reilly wasn't immune to the entire team's downward spiral of offensive production. With the exception of Filip Forsberg, none of the veterans played up to their top potential, including O'Reilly. He certainly wasn't horrible by any means and still did plenty of good things, but he would probably even tell you himself that he wasn't pleased about how last season went for anyone including himself.
There shouldn't be too much suspense on who O'Reilly initially lines up with on Nashville's top line. It should be Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault when the season-opener gets here on October 9 at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
O'Reilly should already have plenty of chemistry to build off of with Forsberg and Marchessault. That's especially true of Forsberg over the past two years. However, this exact combination when you include Marchessault actually hasn't played together that much yet.
Steven Stamkos is the only other realistic option behind Ryan O'Reilly for top line role
Per MoneyPuck, the Forsberg/O'Reilly/Marchessault line only played 103 minutes together last season. Significantly lower than the other options of Forsberg/Stamkos/Marchessault who played 304 minutes together. The two line combinations had nearly equal Expected Goals for Per 60 at around 2.75.
There is a likely chance that the Predators start off with O'Reilly at 1C, but shift to Stamkos if the top line isn't producing the scoring you absolutely need from that unit. But that is definitely not a preferred scenario, and Trotz made that clear:
#Preds GM Barry Trotz says ideally he'd like to keep Steven Stamkos on the wing, but he can play both wing and center, "which is a great thing to have."
— Brooks Bratten (@brooksbratten) September 18, 2025
Everything gets scrambled up into uncertainty like last season if you have to move O'Reilly off the top line. With the Predators not having any solid center depth to play at the top, Stamkos is your only other option if you don't go with O'Reilly. And with Stamkos being much better served at this stage in his career lining up on the wing, Head Coach Andrew Brunette is really going to have to show a little patience here at the beginning of the season.
I don't want to completely overlook Fedor Svechkov here. He's looking to claim the 2C role, which is already going to be a huge challenge for the youngster coming off his first NHL season. There's just no way he is forced into a 1C role over O'Reilly or Stamkos no matter how bad it gets. That would truly be shocking.
The rest of the Nashville center depth is either unproven on the NHL level or clearly bottom-six depth guys. So Trotz is correct in saying that not only is O'Reilly the 1C for now, but that three to four-year timeline is also pretty accurate if we're being realistic.
Looking beyond this season and into 2026-27
What do the Predators do on the top line in 2026-27 and beyond? That is hard to answer, but they desperately need Svechkov to keep trending upward, and they'll need fifth-overall pick Brady Martin to have a fast trajectory. You also have Matthew Wood and David Edstrom in the mix for that three to four-year windown that Trotz brought up.
Call me an optimist here, but I actually believe that Forsberg/O'Reilly/Marchessault will do just fine as the top line for now. Assuming Forsberg maintains his 70-plus point production, then what you're really banking on is Marchessault upping his goal production considerably from 21 last season to up in the 30-plus range. You can't be scoring barely over 20 goals as a top line player, and to be fair he wasn't always on the top line last season.
A big challenge for O'Reilly this season is just how much does he have left in the tank. He's going to be asked to play a lot of hard minutes against some elite top lines around the NHL. In a much better scenario, O'Reilly would be playing on the second line at this stage in his career. This isn't to say that O'Reilly doesn't have one more great final act left in his outstanding NHL career.
The way O'Reilly battles every night and is a class act through and through, it won't surprise me much if he turns it up for Nashville with another 50 to 60-point campaign. You really can't ask for much more than that from him.
This is going to be a bridge year for the Predators up the middle. You're hoping that O'Reilly can hold down the fort for at least one more season while the young reinforcements continue to grow. It's a lot to hope for, and it's a primary reason why most have the Predators far, far away from playoff contention this season.