2022-23 NHL team preview: Nashville Predators

Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

LAST SEASON

The Nashville Predators delivered a strong season in 2021-22, going 45-30-7 and putting up their best points percentage (0.591) in three years.

The team came into the season with the cloud of Filip Forsberg’s impending unrestricted free agency looming over their heads. There was some thought around this time last year that the Preds might opt to move Forsberg as opposed to risking losing him for nothing. But with the Predators firmly in the Western Conference playoff picture all year, the trade deadline came and went and general manager David Poile opted to keep Forsberg.

Unfortunately for the Preds, they didn’t have much of a chance of going on a run in the playoffs. They finished as the second wild-card team in the West and ran into the juggernaut Colorado Avalanche in the first round. With star goaltender Juuse Saros on the shelf with an injury, the Preds were swept aside in four games.

Though the playoffs weren’t at all memorable for Nashville, 2021-22 will be remembered for some spectacular individual performances.

Roman Josi scored a whopping 96 points, the closest that any defender has come to reaching 100 points in a single season since the early 1990s. Matt Duchene set a career-high with 43 goals and 86 points, a massive jump from the 55 points he scored in his first 100 games after signing with Nashvlle. Undrafted free agent signing Tanner Jeannot broke out with 24 goals and also endeared himself to his fans and teammates by getting into 10 fights over the course of the season.

KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES

Additions
Nino Niederreiter, LW
Ryan McDonagh, D
Zach Sanford, LW
Mark Jankowski, C
Kevin Lankinen, G
John Leonard, LW/RW
Kiefer Sherwood, RW
Kevin Gravel, D
Rolan McKeown, D

Departures
Nick Cousins, RW/LW (Fla)
Matt Benning, D (SJ)
Philippe Meyers, D (TB)
Luke Kunin, LW/RW (SJ)
Mathieu Olivier, RW (CBJ)
David Rittich, G (Wpg)
Matt Tennyson, D (Sea)
Matt Luff, LW/RW (Det)
Jeremy Davies, D (Buf)

OFFENSE

Nashville had a solid scoring punch last season as it finished 12th in the league with 266 goals. The team was led by Josi, who scored an absurd 96 points, along with their top trio of Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg, and Ryan Johansen, who scored 86, 84, and 63 points respectively.

The big question surrounding Nashville’s offense last year was whether Forsberg was going to stick around. He carried the best season of his career into unrestricted free agency but wound up re-signing with the Preds at $8.5 million annually over eight years.

The Preds also added some more quality depth to their forward group over the offseason by signing winger Nino Niederreiter to a two-year deal worth $4 million annually. Niederreiter scored 24 goals in 75 games for the Carolina Hurricanes last season and scored 20 goals in 56 games the year before.

Niederreiter is a nice addition, but what’ll ultimately make Nashville’s offense jump from good to very good would be some breakout performances from young forwards. First-round picks Cody Glass (drafted by Vegas), Philip Tomasino, and Eeli Tolvanen have more talent than the production in their careers thus far would indicate.

DEFENSE

One of David Poile’s biggest priorities this offseason was strengthening the depth on Nashville’s blueline. The Preds had two good defensive pairs last season but were a disaster when the third pairing was on the ice.

Roman Josi’s pairing had an even-strength goal differential of 74-56 and Mattias Ekholm’s pairing had a 57-44 differential, but the team got completely caved in when those two pairings weren’t on the ice. The team’s third pair, which mostly featured some combo of Matt Benning, Mark Borowiecki, and Ben Harpur, got outscored 50-26.

The biggest addition the Preds made over the offseason was acquiring Ryan McDonagh from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Grant Mismash and Philippe Myers. The Lightning didn’t deal McDonagh because his play declined, he was ultimately the odd-man-out in a difficult salary cap bind.

Now 33 years old, McDonagh is still a very good defenseman. The Preds might split Josi, Ekholm, and McDonagh on three different defensive pairings so one of their three top-pairing defensemen can be on the ice at all times.

GOALTENDING

The Preds finished with a .906 team save percentage last season, good for 12th in the league. At a glance, it doesn’t seem like goaltending is an issue for Nashville, but depth is a minor concern.

Juuse Saros is one of the best goaltenders in the league. He posted a .918 save percentage in 2021-22 and finished third in Vezina Trophy voting behind Igor Shesterkin and Jacob Markstrom. The trouble was that Saros had to play a league-leading 67 games because Nashville didn’t have depth in net.

Their backup goaltender, David Rittich, posted an .886 save percentage over 17 appearances while 24-year-old Connor Ingram put up an .879 save percentage over his first three games in the league.

The Preds moved on from Rittich and signed Kevin Lankinen in the offseason. Lankinen has played 69 games in his NHL career, all with the Chicago Blackhawks, and he owns a .901 save percentage.

Ingram is waiver-eligible, so it’ll be an interesting battle in training camp to be Saros’ backup.

COACHING

John Hynes is going into the season with some job security as the Predators extended his contract through the 2023-24 season back in May.

Hynes was hired back in January of 2020 after the Preds fired Peter Laviolette. Nashville lost in the play-in round to the Arizona Coyotes that summer and has lost in the first round of the playoffs in back to back years since.

Over eight seasons as a head coach in the NHL with the Devils and Predators, Hynes has never been out of the first round of the playoffs.

ROOKIES

The most interesting Predators rookie to follow this season might not even suit up for their NHL club. It’s Yaroslav Askarov, the No. 11 overall pick from the 2020 NHL Draft who’s deemed by many to be the top goalie prospect in hockey.

The Preds have always had strong goaltending, going from Tomas Vokoun to Pekka Rinne to Saros with virtually zero drop-off in between. Saros is in the second season of a four-year, $20 million contract and Askarov will be pushing for Nashville’s net before that deal is over.

Another interesting name to keep an eye on this year is Glass, though he isn’t technically a rookie. The No. 6 overall pick from the 2017 NHL Draft had an excellent season in the AHL in 2021-22, scoring 62 points over 66 games. He’ll get a real run in the NHL with the Predators this season and is an under-the-radar breakout candidate.

BURNING QUESTIONS

1. Can the Preds find a backup goalie? Rittich wasn’t able to get the job done last season and offseason addition Lankinen doesn’t have a stellar track record at the NHL level. Ingram has performed very well at the AHL level in the past and he might be the best option for the Preds to run alongside Saros.

2. Will they be able to dial back the penalties? A major issue for Nashville last year was the amount of time it spent in the penalty box. The Preds took more penalties than anybody in the league, which is debilitating not just for the goals they gave up while killing penalties but also for the time on offense they’d be missing out on.

3. How will Yaroslav Askarov’s North American debut go? Nashville’s top prospect will be coming overseas to join the Milwaukee Admirals in 2022-23. Askarov has looked like a star in Russia so far in his young career and it’ll be interesting to see how he fares playing in North America.

PREDICTION

The Predators are a better team this year than they were last year thanks to the additions of McDonagh and Niederreiter. Nashville won’t be a wildcard team in 2022-23 and might win a playoff series but they won’t be able to get past the Avs.