NHL Season Recap - Nashville Predators

Nashville Predators

2016-17 season: 41-29-12, 94 points Beat Nashville 4-0 in the First Round Beat St. Louis 4-2  in the Conference Semifinals Beat Anaheim 4-2 in the Conference Finals Lost to Pittsburgh 4-2 in the Stanley Cup Finals	Head Coach: Peter Laviolette (2014)
4th Place Central Division	General Manager: David Poile (1997)
8th Place Eastern Conference	AHL Affiliate: Milwaukee Admirals ECHL Affiliate: Norfolk Admirals
Draft Position: 30th

Top Forwards

POS	Age	Name	GP	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
LW	23	Viktor Arvidsson	80	61	31	30	16	55.0
C	24	Ryan Johansen	82	61	14	47	1	55.9
LW	22	Filip Forsberg	82	58	31	27	-4	54.1
C	36	Mike Fisher	72	42	18	24	1	50.4
RW	29	James Neal	70	41	23	18	-10	52.9
LW	27	Colin Wilson	70	35	12	23	7	53.1
C	25	Calle Jarnkrok	81	31	15	16	-1	50.8
RW	27	Craig Smith	78	29	12	17	7	54.4
C	36	Mike Ribeiro	46	25	4	21	-5	53.4
LW	25	Austin Watson	77	17	5	12	14	44.3

Top Defensemen

POS	Age	Name	GP	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
D	26	Roman Josi	72	49	12	37	7	53.0
D	27	P.K. Subban	66	40	10	30	-8	54.4
D	26	Ryan Ellis	71	38	16	22	17	49.3
D	26	Mattias Ekholm	82	23	3	20	4	52.8
D	29	Matt Irwin	74	14	3	11	15	50.9

Top Goaltenders

POS	Age	Name	Games Started	W/L Record	Shutouts	GAA		Save %
G	34	Pekka Rinne	61	31-19-9	3	2.42	.918
G	21	Juuse Saros	19	10-8-3	1	2.35	.923
G	25	Marek Mazanec	2	0-2-0	0	4.72	.839

Trades Made During the Season

What They Acquired	Team They Traded With	In Exchange For
F P.A. Parenteau	New Jersey Devils	2017 6th RD Pick
F Vernon Fiddler	New Jersey Devils	2017 4th RD Pick
D Andrew O’Brien	Anaheim Ducks	F Max Gortz
F Cody McLeod	Colorado Avalanche	F Felix Girard

Impending Free Agents

POS	Age	Name	2016-17 Cap Hit
C	37	Mike Fisher	$4,400,000
C	37	Mike Ribeiro	$3,500,000
RW	34	P.A. Parenteau	$1,250,000
D	28	Brad Hunt	$600,000
D	33	Adam Pardy	$575,000
C		Adam Payerl	$575,000
D	28	Yannick Weber	$575,000
LW	29	Harry Zolnierczyk	$575,000
LW	28	Michael Liambas	$575,000

Draft Needs

• The Predators have six picks in the upcoming draft, missing just their fourth rounder.  They need to focus on drafting a center with their first or second round pick as that was the position where they suffered the most in the playoffs after Ryan Johansen's injury.  His absence left Mike Fisher, Calle Jarnkrok, Colton Sissons, and Austin Watson to fill in and it wasn't quite enough. Additionally, Fisher is now 37 years old and is approaching the end of his career so the Predators will need to draft a replacement.  There are often a lot of quality centers in the draft since a majority of the forwards in the NHL initially played center in the minors, so they should be able to find a quality one even late in the first round.

What I Said About Them Before the Season

• Before the season began, I wrote about how much I loved the Subban/Weber trade for the Predators, believing that they got the better player in the present and he is three years younger than Weber is.  I wrote that the addition of Subban was making an already-elite defense group even better and that if Pekka Rinne could return to being an above average goaltender, then Nashville could make a run at a Stanley Cup.  I predicted that they had a strong chance at competing for the division title and making a deep run in the playoffs and in my NHL season preview, I actually picked them to make the Stanley Cup finals.

Success/Failure

• Success - Nashville made the Stanley Cup Finals as a 16th seed, the first team to ever do so. That playoff seed is not indicative of how good of a team they actually were as they dealt with a series of injuries throughout the season.  This season proved how badly they needed a first line center as Ryan Johansen made a great impact on their top line with Viktor Arvidsson and Filip Forsberg.  That line was one of the best in the league this season as both Arvidsson and Forsberg were 30 goalscorers, with Arvidsson being one of the most surprising top level goalscorers in the league.  The addition of P.K. Subban also made a big difference to their blueline as the Predators further confirmed that they have the best defense unit in all of hockey.  Their pairing of Subban and Mattias Ekholm was one of the most effective pairings in the league this season and especially in the playoffs, as they were often matched up against the opposing team's top line.  Goaltender Pekka Rinne also rebounded this season and carried the Predators through the first three rounds of the playoffs.  They also got solid goaltending from backup Juuse Saros and it appears that they have found their goaltender of the future in him.  The best part about the Predators is that they are still a young team whose future is bright and they have done an excellent job at drafting, developing lower round picks and college free agents into regular NHLers, and making trades.  GM David Poile is not afraid to build this team through trading instead of exclusively through drafting and is willing to trade away core franchise pieces in order to better the future of the team.  Because of his willingness to do so, the Predators should be considered contenders for the foreseeable future.

Offseason Needs

• The biggest offseason need for the Predators will be re-signing Ryan Johansen, their first line center, and who is an RFA this offseason.  They gave up a lot in Seth Jones to acquire him and by doing so were committing to him as their top center for the future.  Now is the time to further prove that by signing him to a long-term deal.  This will not be cheap, however, and they can probably expect to pay him something similar to Filip Forsberg, who got 6 and $36 million last offseason.  Luckily, the Predators have $17 million in cap space to work with and that will be plenty of money re-sign Johansen and their other free agents.  They also need to re-sign Austin Watson, Frederick Gaudreau, Pontus Aberg, and Viktor Arvidsson, all RFAs and who all played big roles in their playoff run.  In addition, captain Mike Fisher needs a new contract and I think that he and the team will work something out for a short-term deal with a low cap hit.  He'll give them a discount to stay in Nashville, I'm pretty certain of it.  The only other player who they will need to truly negotiate with is Arivdsson, as he scored 31 goals this season.  I don't think this will cost the Predators too much as he may just be happy to have the long-term security of a multi-year deal.   I have heard that perhaps they should look at trading Roman Josi or Ryan Ellis this summer, jumping on the opportunity to bring back a scoring forward before both become more expensive.  Josi has three more seasons left on his deal with a $4 million cap hit while Ellis has two more years left with a hit of $2.5 million.  Both are underpaid for the quality of players they are and the Predators still have Dante Fabbro, who just completed his first season at Boston University, in their system.  He probably projects to be a top four defenseman for them long term and clearing a spot for him will be pivotal to ensuring that he signs with them.  Perhaps it is a season too early to look at moving Josi and Ellis as they would have a hole left in their absence but I do think there is something to opening up discussions. Josi didn't play that well in his own zone in the playoffs, often making questionable decisions with the puck and if they could get a top six winger in return for him, it would be a trade worth considering.

*All stats and information came from hockey-reference.com, rosterresource.com, spotrac.com, NHL.com, hockeydb.com, capfriendly.com, tsn.ca, and eliteprospects.com*