The Nashville Predators made significant acquisitions on paper to improve their offense, but the fit may not be as clean as it looks on paper. Trying to find their spots might be a tricky issue and Head Coach Andrew Brunette will have some dilemmas to solve.
The first power play unit for the Predators, at least right now, should include: Steven Stamkos, Ryan O'Reilly, Jonathan Marchessault, Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi. It sounds really great, but I personally think, that the fit isn't as clean, as people think. Here's why.
Let's start with Stamkos. The newly-acquired forward has accumulated 36, 35 and 39 powerplay points during last three seasons. Last season he was ninth in the league in power play points. His Lightning teammate Nikita Kucherov led the way with 53 power play points.
Can Stamkos translate his Tampa success to Nashville's power play?
The highest ranked Predators player was Josi, who scored 33 points on the power play and was 16th in that category. Brayden Point was 20th. And that's really important.
Add Victor Hedman to the mix with the Lightning, who as of 2023 ranked fifth in the hardest shot column in NHL history. It shows that Hedman has an elite slapshot. Add all that up, and you'll get an elite power play line that the Lightning had.
Stamkos will wait on that left wing and score goals from there, but I'm not sure it'll be that easy.
One, is when you have Kucherov on the opposite side, who is an elite creator and can make basically every type of pass, it makes things a lot easier for Stamkos. Just by standing there creates a lot of threat and attracts additional defenders, because you can't leave him one on one, since then you leave him with a lot of open space.
Then on the blue line you put Hedman, who is also a good creator and has a great slapshot. You can't leave him all alone, because he can make a pass or make a slapshot from the blue line. That way he makes defenders move higher and open more space closer to the net.
You can't leave Point alone either, so you move those three to one side, basically overcrowd it a bit and leave Stamkos barely covered on the other side, because you can't cover it all.
Will Stamkos be able to do the same with Nashville's power play? It's really unclear.
The Predators don't have that type of creator, like Kucherov. Forsberg likes to move vertically from the blue line down the net. He's still creating threat, but in a different way. And he won't be having Hedman also. That type of defender, who can make a slapshot from the blue line.
If you play Josi as a defender alongside Forsberg, you could lose spacing, because Josi isn't known for hammering shots from the blue line, even though he can do that, but defenders could sag off him a little bit more and bother passing lanes for Marchessault or Stamkos. You basically would have to get Forsberg moving full speed down hill to make the defense really shift.
Then you have Marchessault, who was great last season, and his teammates were a similar to those, that he'll be having in Nashville. He's good in the bumper spot, but that way he'll bother a passing lane to Stamkos.
The better way would be playing Brady Skjei on the blue line, since he likes to move without the puck and that opposite goal corner. He would balance the ice a bit more than Josi with Forsberg would have more space to operate. You can move O'Reilly from the bumper spot to the net. By putting Skjei, you could open the ice, create more passing lanes and spread the defense.
To show old Tampa Bay or Vegas highlights and think that it'll work just like that here with Nashville is a bit ludicrous. Nashville coaching staff will have to be creative and generate some movement, to make this power play unit work, because it does have a lot of potential.