Nashville Predators fans will get their first look of the newly constructed roster in the team's home opener against the Minnesota Wild on October 1.
After Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager Chris MacFarland spent his first few months reeling in a plethora of pieces, he'll finally be able to get a gist of what the team could be like, especially against high-level opponents like the Wild.
The Predators are 49-40-5-2 against the Wild all-time, and 30-14-2-2 at home, statistically making them a better team in this scenario. In the last five seasons, Nashville is 10-8, winning six of nine home games. Roman Josi leads all Predators players in points against Minnesota with 46, while Kirill Kaprizov leads all Wild players in points against Nashville with 18.
Projected lines for Predators
Forsberg-O'Reilly-Evangelista
Stamkos-Bourque-Wood
Colton-Drury-Marchessault
Kerfoot-Pinchuk-Hoglander
Skjei-Josi
Hague-Perbix
Wilsby-Lyubushkin
Saros
Annunen
What we can expect
This entire season will be an important one for the Predators, but the home opener could dictate how it may go. For our opener to be against a strong team like the Wild, who added some solid pieces while retaining others, it will truly show how our team could play against higher level talents.
Of course, it will take some time for the juices to get flowing and the chemistry to kick off, but after training and the preseason, there's a good enough sample to see things happen. The mixture of experienced youth talent and veteran presence makes this roster a big step better than last season. On top of that, the addition of former teammates like Ross Colton and Steven Stamkos can help with the initial awkwardness.
In terms of deep dives, let's first look at the top six.
The arrival of Mavrik Bourque is huge. He just had a breakout year with the Dallas Stars, scoring 20 goals and 41 points in 82 games. The 24-year-old is a talented playmaker, and with him projected to be slotted alongside Stamkos and Matthew Wood, we can expect a lot of scoring on either wing.
On the bottom six, there is realistically only one returning member, that being Jonathan Marchessault. Colton and Jack Drury provide the two-way scoring, Nils Hoglander provides the speed and puck handling, and Alex Kerfoot provides strong games with a lot of versatility.
On defense, there is only one change, but it's a big one. Ilya Lyubushkin is a reliable stay-at-home defender, but his presence removes a spot for Ryan Ufko. He had a lot of potential last season and was ultimately one of the best players on the Predators in his tenure. If we do see him, he'd likely be a game-to-game swap with Lyubushkin.
Nashville will sure have a lot of new pieces to work with, and a matchup against Minnesota will sure test the waters. Rivaling up against the likes of Quinn Hughes, Kaprizov, Matt Boldy and Jesper Wallstedt.
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