A major part of why the Nashville Predators have started this season so poorly is because Barry Trotz's offseason pickups have not been as advertised. Steven Stamkos only recently has gotten going offensively, and Jonathan Marchessault still has yet to record a goal at 5-on-5 play.
The lack of offense has been disappointing for a Predators team that improved at least on paper, but maybe even more disappointing has been the defense. And just like the forwards Trotz acquired, another one of his prized signings on defense has failed to live up to the bill thus far.
Brady Skjei has not at all found his rhythm on the Predators, and it is worth noting that his contract was the one that people including myself feared would age worse. Even if we did not think it would be quite this bad, it seems as if the fears of the naysayers are being confirmed as we watch.
Brady Skjei is struggling to adjust to Nashville Predators
A big part of why the Predators effectively replaced Ryan McDonagh with Skjei is because Skjei brings an offensive element that McDonagh does not. It made sense in theory since last year, the team had no offense from their blue line outside of Roman Josi, but it certainly has not improved like we had hoped.
Skjei's offensive base stats are not horrible, as he has 2 goals and 4 assists in 16 games, but that is really the only positive you can find on that front. He has hardly been noticed on offense outside of two goals, and of course he will never be the driver and facilitator that Josi is, but we still expected much more at this point.
Defensively, he has not been much better, as once again, he has done little to nothing that would wow you. He has spent much of his time on the top pairing with Josi, and together, the two have been disjointed and out of position often, and have been on the ice for some critical goals against.
Now of course, it is tough to judge anyone, especially defensemen, purely from the eye test, but Skjei's deeper numbers tell maybe an even worse story than anything I have said here.
Trying to turn around the struggle bus pic.twitter.com/p9gH3He0XN
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) November 12, 2024
His analytics have some of the worst on the Predators in several games this year, and even though he actually played pretty well on Monday, he had a brutal turnover that resulted in the game winning goal against, which of course is the big story.
So all of this begs two big questions - where does the team go from here, and is there any hope that things can get better? To answer the first one, the Predators do not have a choice with how much they are paying Skjei and for how long, so they have to try and make needed adjustments and hope it gets better.
And for as underwhelming as he has been early on, I honestly believe things can turn around for him as he gets more time with the Predators. Yes, he should be much better than what we have seen so far, and yes, he may never totally live up to that lavish deal he signed, but it is also still early and things need their time to truly play out.
Players have talked about how difficult Andrew Brunette's system can be at first, since there is so much skating at both sides of the ice. That is especially the case for defensemen, as they have to worry about defending their own net and intertwining themselves in the offense, so even the slightest of lapses can turn into disasters.
I personally think a big part of why the Predators have struggled on defense so far is because of the loss of McDonagh. It is imperative for the defense to have their structure down in a system like Brunette's, and losing him created a void that they are still trying to patch.
Skjei, for as much skill as he brings, is not the same type of player McDonagh is, so it makes sense that the Predators are still figuring out how the pieces fit together. They struggled defensively to start last year and got better, so there is still hope for Skjei, but we need to see tangible results soon, especially in a season where the team has high expectations.