The Nashville Predators starting lineup has gone through sweeping changes throughout the season for a variety of reasons, with some significant long-term injuries to core players being one of them.
To put it into perspective, the Predators have used 40 different players in their starting lineup this season, including three goalies and 14 defensemen. Hard to build sustained team chemistry with that much roster turnover.
Back when the Predators were still trying to save their season, the loss of Jeremy Lauzon really shook up the defensive corps and forced some scrambling of the pairings by Head Coach Andrew Brunette.
Predators lost a lot of physicality with Lauzon missing so many games
Lauzon has been out since December 31, bringing his total games missed this season to 52 games. His physical presence has certainly been missed, but it has also opened up opportunities for others to play a more prominent role, like Nick Blankenburg.
Signed for just one more year, you have to wonder where Lauzon's place will be with this team next season. Blankenburg has played well and provided much more offense than Lauzon, and the Predators also have a deep prospect pool at the position.
Marc Del Gaizo and Adam Wilsby are also in the mix to be starters next season in Nashville. Lauzon is really going to need a productive offseason and training camp to prove to coaches that he should return back to being a regular starter over the other aforementioned players.
This injury might end up putting a damper on Lauzon's future with Nashville, and a trade wouldn't be surprising to me at all. Lauzon carries a pretty easy contract to move at just one more year left at $2 million.
When Roman Josi played his last game on February 25, the season was basically already lost but mathematically speaking the team still had something to strive for. One last miracle run was still possible, but losing your captain made things impossible to overcome.
Nashville Predators sent into the blender after Josi's Injury
With all of the time missed, Josi is still fifth on the team in points with 38. He was on an nine-game goal drought as the team came out of the Four Nations Face-Off break with an uplifting win over the Colorado Avalanche.
Josi would appear in just two more games before the injury that likely has his season shut down for good. His offensive impact took a noticeable drop from previous season, with his Points Per 60 and Shots Per 60 all trending down.
A fresh and revitalized Josi for 2025-26 is what everyone is hoping for, but the former perennial Norris Trophy contender's best days are behind him as he's coming up on age 35. With that said, Josi can still provide the captain leadership and boost the offense.
To the same token, Josi might also enter 2025-26 rusty while the team searches for an answer on who is defensive linemate should be.
If Josi could have avoided the injury and stayed in the lineup throughout the rest of the season, he probably would've at least hit the 50-point mark again. Still, he was on his way to an enormous plummet from the previous season of 23 goals and 85 points.
Wilsby was on his way to an impressive rookie season in NHL
Another significant blow to the Predators' defensive corps was losing Wilsby in early February. Although the season already felt dead in the water at the time, a miracle run was still possible and Wilsby was showing encouraging signs as a rookie.
In 23 games, Wilsby had five points and 33 shots on net while boasting a respectable Corsi of 52.8. His confidence as a rookie while averaging over 18 minutes of ice time was a fast launching point into his early NHL career.
Shockingly enough, Wilsby was part of the most efficient Predators defensiving pairing in terms of generating offense. His pairing with, wait for it, Luke Schenn had a 65.3 Expected Goals Percentage, highest among all Predators defensive combos. This is for minimal ice time of at least 100 minutes together, per MoneyPuck data.
Wilsby got into the mix pretty early on in the season when things were already going in a horrible direction for the team. He made his NHL debut on November 27 and quickly was playing an important role on the team, and has a really good chance to be a starter to open 2025-26. He has one more year left on his two-way deal, giving the front office flexibility to move him to Milwaukee first if there is a logjam. However, I'm thinking Wilsby should be the third left shot defensemen to be a starter for Predators next season, along with the obvious choices of Skeji and Josi.
Colton Sissons has been out since March 29, and his last update was his designation of being week-to-week with a lower body injury. Even if the aging 31-year-old veteran was able to suit up in these last few games, it was wise for the organization to hold him out to give others a chance to play, like Matthew Wood.
Sissons still kept his streak alive of 70-plus games in a season, now at four in a row. His offense dropped off a bit like every other Predators player this year, and he also enters the offseason with just one more year left on his current deal. He will once again be the subject of trade talks next season.
Overall the Predators were actually really fortunate with the injury luck this season. They certainly can't blame mounting injuries as an excuse for their historic failure of a season. Josi was the most impactful one by far, but the Predators never lost any of their core forwards for an extended amount of time.
According to Injury Viz, only eight other teams had a lesser impact on their team based on per game cap hit due to injuries.
Forsberg and Stamkos has played in all 81 games, while O'Reilly played in 78 games and Marchessault 77 games. Although the defense suffered the brunt of the injury plague, Skjei has played in all 81 games to join Forsberg and Stamkos.