While the Nashville Predators continue to cling onto their veteran core, the writing is on the wall that a new era of hockey is coming soon. General Manager Barry Trotz realizes that despite pushing back on the term "rebuild".
Byron Bader, creator of Hockey Prospecting, has a unique ranking system of NHL prospects and their likelihood of becoming "stars" in the NHL. He does comparisons for prospects to current NHL players and also does probabilities on if that prospect will will eventually become an everyday NHL player.
With that in mind, Bader ranks the Nashville Predators prospect pool 14th in his latest rankings out of 32 teams. A minor drop-off from recent rankings I've seen the Predators at in the last couple of years. Losing Yaroslav Askarov certainly put a dent into the Predators' prospect pool ranking.
Bader gives high marks to the Predators' depth in their prospect pool, ranking them 4th, but drops them all the way down to 20th in terms of their "Top 5 Star" ranking.
Fedor Svechkov just passed the 50-game mark of his NHL career and figures to now be graduated from the prospect ranks. He has a great chance to be the next success story for the Predators when it comes to homegrown talent, an area they have struggled in when it comes to developing forwards and holding onto them.
With Svechkov already taking that next leap, Zachary L'Heureux already getting consistent NHL playing time, and Luke Evangelista now gearing up to get his first NHL standard contract from the Predators, who is the next forward prospect for the Predators to make that leap to the NHL?
Nashville Predators prospect pool rundown going into 2025 Offseason
The easy answer seems to be Joakim Kemell. He made his brief NHL debut for two games and even has seve shots on goal in his first NHL game. He will be a focal point in training camp to see if he can earn a roster spot out of training camp.
Kemell was drafted 17th overall in 2022 by the Predators, and generally speaking when you select that far back in the first round, it's always a gamble as to if they're going to eventually become "star" players.
However, Kemell does still have top-six potential with his raw shooting skills. He could eventually turn into a power play specialist and a middle-six offensive threat for the Predators in the coming years.
Perhaps the biggest star potential prospect the Predators currently have plays on the defensive side with Tanner Molendyk. At just 20-years-old, there is no rush for Molendyk to make the NHL jump. Even with his very high NHL ceiling, patience is going to be key for the potential top pairing NHL defenseman.
Molendyk just won the WHL Championship playing for the Medicine Hat Tigers while putting up 20 points in 18 playoff games. He is by far in my humble opinion the top prospect in the Predators' system with the highest "superstar" potential.
It's unclear just how far away Molendyk is from making the jump to the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL , but I'm thinking he has to be really close and has accomplished all he can in the WHL dating back to the 2020-21 season.
Conservatively speaking, Molendyk is probably at least one full season away in the AHL before making a push to appear in an NHL game for the Predators. There is no reason to rush this guy into a sticky situation when he's only 20 and has three more years left on his entry level contract.
The issue right now with the Predators prospect pool, and a reason why ranking them in the middle of the NHL is a fair assessment, is the lack of high ceiling talent. You have Kemell and Molendyk as leading the way now that Svechkov is no longer really a true prospect.
David Edstrom has some modest hopes of eventually becoming a quality middle-six center, and the Predators really need him to develop into that one day.
Edstrom was acquired in the Askarov trade with the San Jose Sharks back in August of 2024, to refresh your memory. Not even close to being a one-for-one swap in terms of potential ceilings, but of course the Predators also acquired goalie prospect Magnus Chrona and the 26th overall pick coming up in this year's draft from Vegas Golden Knights.
Edstrom has played in his first four games for the Milwaukee Admirals during this current postseason run, but has yet to record a point. He will be a mainstay in the Admirals lineup in 2025-26 and hopes to take a big step forward. Still very early in his journey as a prospect before we can make any sweeping proclamations about his future.
Then there's Ryan Ufko, a smooth skating defenseman with a lot of offensive upside. As a fourth-round pick, Ufko can end up being a huge steal from that draft if he stays on the promising trajectory that he's on.
This past season for Ufko, which is still currently active in the playoffs for the Admirals, showed encouraging results as a rookie in the AHL. Putting up 30 points as a rookie defenseman after completing his NCAA career is impressive from a fourth round pick.
Ufko has moderate superstar potential one day, although I'm sure some will disagree with that. At the very least, he has a decent chance to be an everyday NHL starter in the next season or two for the Predators.
Predators prospect pool has a lot of depth guys, not much superstar potential
After that, it's a lot of future depth guys in the NHL more than likely. Reid Schaefer could eventually turn out to be a bottom-six depth player. Same goes for Ozzy Wiesblatt, who has already made his NHL debut this past season and showed a high motor with strong intangibles to one day work himself into a more consistent bottom-six role as a grinder type of player.
Joey Willis, the former fourth-round pick by the Predators in 2023, is hoping to make his way onto the Milwaukee Admirals roster in the next year. He has spent the last three seasons in the OHL while posting two-straight 50-plus point seasons, so there is hope there that Willis can down the road become a depth player in the NHL.
There are some non-roster prospect who haven't even landed their first contract with the Predators organization yet. Yegor Surin jumps immediately to mind as a the first-round pick by the Predators in 2024.
Surin is still a long ways away from Nashville. He has one more year left playing in the KHL after just completing his first full season in that very difficult league this past year. He put up 14 points in 41 regular season games and seven points in the playoffs.
Surin just became a KHL champion with HC Lokomotiv while making a significant impact and not just being a passenger.
When you go this far down the pipeline, it's really difficult to project who will be a future star in the NHL one day. Just based on scouting reports and total guesses by even the best scouts, the Predators lack a lot of superstar potential here as well. Many of these prospects are really young and none of them in this group even have entry level contracts from the Predators yet.
Bottom line is this year's draft is vital for the Predators to hit a couple home runs in the first round of the draft. They have three selections, including the fifth overall pick which absolutely has to become instantly a top-3 prospect in the system as soon as they're drafted, only behind Molendyk and Kemell.
After the awful year we just endured, the Predators need to have one of their biggest hauls in the draft that they've ever had as a franchise and transform this prospect pool from middle of the league and lacking top end superstar talent, to being one of the up and coming prospect systems.