Steven Stamkos arrives for Nashville Predators, Open to playing Center

The hype and enthusiasm surrounding Steven Stamkos and the Nashville Predators has plenty of more time to build this offseason, and he's officially made his arrival to the world famous Broadway.

Stamkos has been spotted this week walking the streets of Nashville in his No.91 Predators sweater and mingling with fans and musicians, because would you expect anything else?

Stamkos tells the team's official website how much family played into his decision to choose Nashville and even brought up not just the organization, but raising a family in the Nashville community.

Giving us even more of a window into his decision to join the Nashville Predators, Stamkos mentioned the impact that Luke Schenn made, as well as Ryan McDonagh and Jonathan Marchessault.

Everything really did just come together to make Nashville the crystal clear choice for Stamkos after the Tampa Bay front office failed to do enough to keep their beloved franchise great and future Hall of Famer.

This is Stamkos' welcoming week to Nashville. He's made his rounds doing the local media availability, including a candid conversation with the Predators' flagship station 102.5 The Game. This is where he addressed the speculation of where he'll be in the lineup, wing or center?

Is Stamkos better at center or wing for the Predators?

Stamkos isn't a young buck anymore, and yes some of his skills have diminished in the speed department, and also the physicality of the game. But when you look at the Predators' projected lineup going into 2024-25, they don't have a lot of trusted options to play second line center.

Tommy Novak should be the top choice if Stamkos is kept on the wing like he was in recent times with the Tampa Bay Lightning. There are, however, legitimate questions to if Novak is truly ready to take on that high pressure role to center a line with Stamkos and likely Jonathan Marchessault.

If you move Stamkos to the second line center role, then that gives you a new question of who plays the right wing position. Again, you don't have a lot of trusted options to play on that side.

Stamkos also mentions in the 102.5 The Game interview with Willy Daunic and Derrick Mason that he has had brief conversations with Head Coach Andrew Brunette on how he sees the lineup currently, and that it could take some time to find the right chemistry with the new players.

Training camp will be a crucial time for Brunette to work out some kinks and decide where the best spot to put Stamkos to open 2024-25. I suspect that within the first month of the regular season that we could see Stamkos bounce between wing and center until the most effective combination is discovered.

The overall sentiment is that Brunette will not mess with his top line from 2023-24 that consisted of Ryan O'Reilly at center, and Filip Forsberg and Gus Nyquist on the wings. All three had enormous offensive campaigns thanks to playing with each other. You just can't mess with that.

Unless Novak just completely stumbles and shows he's not ready for the primetime top-six center role with Stamkos and Marchessault, then that is your best option to start with. It doesn't mean you're stuck with that decision, but you have to give it some time to grow and breathe before yanking it away from Novak and sending yourself into scramble mode.

On the other hand, if Stamkos is at center, Novak can also play on the wing. I just don't think that is Novak's best spot. He's a great puck distributor that showed through his possession metrics, a 60.1 Corsi rating, that he should be ready for the next step in his NHL career.

What also doesn't leave you a lot of options in all of this is when you go deeper into the bottom six, you really don't want to mess with those lines, either. You have a bunch of guys who are outstanding in their bottom-six roles, but aren't everyday second line caliber players.

Novak is your top choice on 2nd line, but keep an eye on Parssinen moving up

Juuso Parssinen finished a good chunk of 2023-24 with the Milwaukee Admirals, a somewhat surprising decision at the time. However, the expectation is that Parssinen will find his way back into the NHL lineup to open 2024-25, and he is always an option to move into the top-six again if Novak can't seize the role.

The Predators' top plan is probably Novak at center with Stamkos, but there's a lot of ways this can go if a Plan B is needed. I prefer Stamkos to stay at the wing and only be put at center if a shakeup is needed after the first 10 games or so.

A lot of outside fans around the NHL are skeptical that Stamkos can replicate what he did in Tampa now that he's shifting to a roster that won't have as many weapon on his line. Novak is the major x-factor here for sure.

Let's also not forget that Stamkos does a huge portion of his damage on the power play, and that should be much easier to construct at the onset. Stamkos will likely be surrounded by some serious talent on the top unit that will be a nightmare for a penalty kill to deal with.

So even at 5v5 even strength it may take some trial and error to find Stamkos' best place at center or wing, the power play should see pretty immediate results. A top unit with Stamkos, Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg, Ryan O'Reilly and possibly Jonathan Marchessault will be difficult for even the best penalty kills to deal with.