3 Burning Questions Surrounding Nashville Predators' Defensive Corps
The Predators have been plagued by defensive breakdowns and unreliable goaltending to cover it up lately.
How do you Handle Tyson Barrie if you can't Trade Him?
Barrie hasn't played in a game since December 23 and is now reportedly dealing with an upper body injury that has him day-to-day. It's looking like the Predators behind the scenes can't find a suitable trade partner for Barrie, so they're stuck with him for now.
If you can't trade Barrie and he's healthy to play, then he has to be in your starting lineup. He is better than Luke Schenn and it's about remaining in the playoff race, while also hoping he can spark his trade value with better play on the ice.
Leaving Barrie on the bench as a healthy scratch is counterproductive unless you're just ready to give up on this season, which obviously isn't the case. I realize Barrie has his defensive decencies, but he is unequivocally better than Schenn and at least provides better offensive upside and power play help.
I would have Barrie on the second power play unit for the Predators if he's in the lineup. Now it could be that the Predators aren't playing him because something is in the works and a trade is near. If he's dealing with some sort of nagging injury, you don't want that injury to become worse and then he really loses all trade value.
So it could be that the Predators are playing the cautious approach with Barrie and choosing to wait this out a little longer before becoming desperate to trade him, and maybe even retain salary.
If you can't trade him right now and he's healthy enough to play, he needs to be in over Schenn. It's that simple for me. Trade him as soon as you can and play him until that happens. Don't waste a trade asset by leaving them on the bench.
Predators need to get this done quick.
What Will Happen with Predators Free Agent Defensemen?
Alexandre Carrier will be an unrestricted free agent in the 2024 offseason and the Predators need to decide if they're ready to give him a multi-year commitment.
Judging off purely defensive metrics, Carrier has overall been pretty solid in the first half of the season. He leads the team in blocks with 78 and has also paired well with Ryan McDonagh.
The Carrier and McDonagh pairing ranks 13th-best among defensive lines in Expected Goals Against Per 60, giving up just 1.91. For perspective, Roman Josi's first appearance ranks his pairing with Dante Fabbro at 64th at 2.4 Expected Goals Against Per 60. (Per MoneyPuck).
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Carrier's offense hasn't taken off like you would prefer to see from him considering he does have offensive upside, but the Predators should have a long-term plan that includes Carrier on this team.
The Predators also have two other free agent defensemen to decide on with Barrie, who will likely be traded in the next two months, and Fabbro as a restricted free agent.
Could it come down to a decision between Carrier or Fabbro in the offseason? The Predators do have the fourth-most projected cap space according to CapFriendly, sitting with roughly $7.769M. But it's widely established that the Predators aren't going to be able to keep everyone, considering they also have eight free agent forwards and have to figure out what to do with Kevin Lankinen as a free agent.
I can see it being very tricky to retain both Carrier and Fabbro past this upcoming offseason. One of them could be traded before the trade deadline, so keep that on your radar. It's a really tough decision to make between Carrier or Fabbro, but I would choose Carrier.
When Will We See Spencer Stastney Get Another Call Up?
Until the Predators find a trade partner for Barrie, it's going to be hard to find roster space for Stastney. As I've already made clear, I don't see any benefit to benching Barrie while you're trying to find trade interest for him.
On the other hand, Stastney deserves to be playing NHL minutes and would be helping the Predators much more than Barrie or Schenn.
Stastney has played in just nine games for the Predators this season, registering 16 blocks, one goal, five shots on goal and a plus-6 +/- rating. He was just named to the AHL All-Star team along with Yaroslav Askarov.
Another reason it's complicated to get Stastney in the starting lineup is he's a left shot defenseman, and the Predators already have Josi, McDonagh and Jeremy Lauzon as their preferred defenders on the left side.
Lauzon can shift to right side, as can McDonagh, but you don't want to shake up the defensive corps just to get Stastney in. If you did move Lauzon to the right side, he could replace Schenn and leave you with your right side being Carrier, Fabbro and Lauzon.
It's only a matter of when and not if Stastney gets called up back again this season. The organization thinks highly of him as part of their long-term future. The Predators need to see more of Stastney on the NHL level before he hits restricted free agency this offseason.
Once Barrie is finally traded, expect that to pave the way for Stastney to return to the Predators lineup and hopefully for good.
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