Forwards (Filip Forsberg, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, Ryan O'Reilly, Luke Evangelista, Erik Haula)
Overall Grade: D
For the overall grade of the forwards, the only reason I don't go full on failing grade with an F is because at least some of these guys play some defense and leave it all out there. Mostly the depth players have played pretty hard and even provided some extra offense.
As for the top forwards who are expected to provide consistent offense, they're all underperforming with the exception of Ryan O'Reilly. The team is averaging 2.45 goals per game, which is tied shockingly with the back-to-back champion Florida Panthers for 30th in the NHL.
O'Reilly is your lone veteran forward who is playing up to expectations, and maybe even overperforming. He leads the Predators in goals with five and points with nine. Forsberg is just behind him with four goals and four assists.
It isn't so much that Forsberg is playing all that poorly, but he's just not living up to being the unstoppable force that Nashville needs him to be. He's not taking over games and he has yet to make an impact on Nashville's slumping power play with no goals and just two assists.
It gets even worse with Steven Stamkos. The dude is a ghost out there. I don't know how else to put it. Completely disengaged and if you don't really look hard for him out there, you'll easily miss him.
Jonathan Marchessault is also trending towards the same lackluster output that we saw last season. Again, not a complete bust, but also nowhere near his talent level. He has three goals in eight games, and one of those is an empty net goal.
I give the D grade for this group as a whole because the depth forwards haven't been that bad. Michael McCarron has kept up his tenacity, as has Cole Smith. They're fueling the penalyt kill at least, and I have even been moderately please with Erik Haula in his role as a tone-setter when he's on the third line.
Fedor Svechkov has yet to crack the scoresheet through nine games, so that is certainly concerning and giving us a bad rerun of when the team tried to push Tommy Novak to second line center status and eventually sent him away to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
And finally I'll end on Luke Evangelista among the forwards. He did score his first goal of the 2025-26 campaign last season against the Tampa Bay Lightning to try to spark a third period comeback. He is under a microscope after holding out past training camp for a new contract.
Evangelista does have six points in 10 games, with the goal also coming on the power play. His ice time is still pretty low at 13:20 per game. I have to expect him to stay in the top-six for most of this season to see if he can really elevate his game to career highs on offense.