When looking at just how the Nashville Predators are going quickly go from near the bottom of the NHL to back to being a playoff team, some potential team strengths come to mind.
The Predators revamped their defense by adding solid veteran defenders in Nicolas Hague and Nick Perbix. Hague via a trade that sent Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon to the Golden Knights, and Perbix via free agency on a rather team-friendly deal.
They bring back Brady Skjei, who had a lackluster first year after being signed during the 2024 free agency splash that also landed Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, prompting some pundits to even predict the Predators Western Conference Finals contenders. They were all fooled, as was I.
Skjei will be asked to play somewhere in the top-four of the defense and illustrate himself as a veteran leader and much more comfortable in Head Coach Andrew Brunette's system of fast pace and heavy forechecking. Skjei will need a much better presence as a two-way defender and leader on the ice.
The Predators have assembled a defense that has the tools to be hard to score on, but finding the right chemistry early on will be a tough test
The focus is to give much better protection to their former All-Star and Vezina Trophy candidate goaltender Juuse Saros, who is just about to begin Year 1 of an 8-year contract that in the long-run will actually be pretty darn affordable for the team.
This brings me to think that the primary focus of this team is going to be first to protect the house, "the house" being protecting the crease and making Saros' life much easier. Let Saros' world class skill do the rest, and hopefully we see a big confidence boost in him, when at many times last season his confidence looked questionable at best.
This is why I've come around to really like what the Predators have done this offseason. They haven't been reckless in their ways and signed another boom or bust free agent. They're carrying a little over $9 million in cap space going into the season, with RFA Luke Evangelista still left to re-sign with some of of that money.
Sure, everyone wants to score boat loads of goals and make the flashy highlight reel every game, but I just don't see that being this team's strength even if some of the veterans like Stamkos and Marchessault perform closer to their career averages.
This team is going to have to many teams win on protecting the blueline and playing disciplined in their own zone to avoid giving up the 2-on-1 breakaways that puts Saros in a precarious situation. Something that happened far too often last season.
Even if the Predators are a top-10 defense and have strong goaltending, will that be enough to overcome a below average offense?
The more likely scenario is that the Predators have a formidable defense that's top-10 in goals surrendered, but has an offense in the bottom half of the NHL. The main reason for this is they lack so much center depth that there are going to be long stretches when this team struggles to even get quality chances, much less actually beating the goalie for a goal.
I'm not sure it's going to be enough to get this team back to the playoffs in 2026, but becoming much improved on team defense and goaltending will at least put them into my prediction range of mid to upper 80s in points. Maybe just missing that playoff bubble, but at least putting together a much more entertaining and palatable season for the fans to consume.
This also hinges on just how healthy and ready to go Roman Josi is going to be. This team needs him desperately to stabilize everything, while also finding the right defensive partner for him is going to be crucial for coaches to indentify early on. Someone who can protect the back end while Josi does his patented play style of transition and creating scoring chances off the rush.
The Predators have to be better at protecting their own net before the goal scoring is going to come and many more wins in the standings than their 30 wins in 2024-25. I'm cautiously optimistic they will be much better in team defense and in return get a much better version of Saros. A version that will steal games that he wasn't able to steal last season.
There are reinforcements coming down the road from what is a prospect pool that is gaining a strong reputation around NHL scouts, but it's not going to make a major impact this upcoming season. We are likely a few years away from realy beairing the fruits from that, and that's only if the development goes as planned.
Now, if somehow the Predators start clicking on offense and Fedor Svechkov and a re-signed Evangelista have their breakout years offensively, then sure, this team can return to the playoffs. But the logical first two steps in getting back to a respectable place in the NHL is stout team defense and elite goaltending that we have been spoiled by for most of this franchise's history with Saros, Pekka Rinne, and Tomas Vokoun before that.