After one of the worst seasons in Nashville Predators history, there is a lot riding on this offseason.
The fanbase and franchise have become used to playoff appearances and contending, so finishing 3rd worst in the league after "winning" the 2024-25 offseason is especially disastrous. The expectation is that this will turn around very fast and the team will be playoff bound again in 2025-2026.
Core players like Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg, and Juuse Saros (whose extension is kicking in) are all locked in and coming back. The team retained useful veteran Ryan O'Reilly, a coveted trade deadline piece. They've got the class of 2024 free agents with Brady Skeji, Steven Stamkos, and Jonathan Marchessault all tied up for years to come. Luke Evangelista is an RFA and figures to be back. The only UFA among the forwards is Jakub Vrana.
On defense, it's Marc Del Gaizo who is the UFA, of the Group 6 variety. There are a few spots there with Dante Fabbro and Luke Schenn leaving unfilled spots. Andreas Englund (freshly resigned) and Nick Blankenburg presume to fight for the 7th spot as the defense likely needs to be rounded out.
The Gustav Nyquist money falls off the books, and so does Ryan Johansen's contract finally. The NHL also figures to increase the cap from $88 million dollars to $95.5 million dollars. What does all of this mean? The Predators will have some cap space to play around with.
Right now thanks to all the wheeling and dealing that Barry Trotz did during the season the Predators were able to create $6.9 million in cap space. Then Johansen's $4 million comes off of the cap, as well as Nyquist's $1.5 million. Then based on contracts coming off, others with different cap hits, PuckPedia projects that the Predators are going into the offseason with somewhere in the neighborhood of $17 million dollars.
For the Predators, that's a huge amount of money. Their roster is relatively set as it is. Chad Minton has discussed that this is not going to be a big tear down job. However it allows them to be aggressive with the players they really want. They do need a quality defenseman and they don't need him to be overly offensive.
Players like Vladislav Gavrikov or Ivan Provorov might end up on the open market. Aaron Ekbland's contract is expering, and the Florida Panthers can't keep everyone can they?
In what would be an ironic twist, the timing could be perfect for a reunion with Matt Duchene, who has been resurgent this season to the tune of 82 points (30 goals 52 assists) and is exactly what the Predators need in a 2nd line center. It'd be ironic to pay him twice, but he'd be a sight for soar eyes. Maybe a winger like Nikolaj Ehlers helps the Predators relieve some of their goal scoring woes.
The Predators roster isn't going to look very different from top to bottom, but there is more than enough room for one big splash move, and that could change the fortunes of the franchise for years to come.