1. Figure out what to do at Center
This overwhelming need for the organization continues to haunt the franchise and I don't see it getting solved for 2025-26 unless again, the fountain of youth is discovered. Ryan O'Reilly and Steven Stamkos are getting further and further from their primes.
Do we really want to bank on Stamkos and O'Reilly being your top-six centers in 2025-26? I'm not so sure the Predators will have any other choice but to roll with these veterans again. As you know, finding top-six centers in free agency is like finding an open suitcase of cash in the middle of a busy sidewalk and no one stopping to pick it up.
Just scanning over the bigger names due to be free agents at the center position, you see John Tavares, Sam Bennett and Brock Nelson. All aging players that fit the bill of being top-six centers, but is Trotz really crazy enough to go heavy into free agency again?
I'd love to add Bennett to the Predators, but that is a long-shot and the more realistic scenario for the Predators is building the center position up from within. That means one player in particular that has to be ready to go in 2025-26 is Fedor Svechkov.
Svechkov is the only true center in the prospect pool that has the ceiling to eventually become a top line center, and at worst, a 2C.
If everything goes perfectly for the Predators, Svehckov quickly develops into a second line center while O'Reilly sticks around as the 1C for another year. I really don't see any other options for 2025-26 aside from some unforeseen trades, which again top-six centers just don't pop up on the trade market very often.
In other words, the Predators will hopefully draft their next center phenom in the upcoming draft.