Predators Season Review: CPs current favorite team did better than expected
The Nashville Predators started the season low on everyones prediction lists. We had some 14th in the division and some had us at 15th. We were a little closer to the playoffs when we made some moves that basically changed the season from "rebuild and see what happens in 2011-2012" to "go for broke and try to make the playoffs now". We were in the playoff picture a few times through the season and were actually looking pretty good in early December, getting as high as 5th and a point out of 4th. Some deluded Preds followers though that we might even try to catch the division leading St. Louis Blues at that point!
The GM made some questionable trades, and the one that sticks out in my mind was a trade where I sent Antoine Vermette out the door in exchange for Marc Savard....at a time when we had a 6 game winning streak rolling. Not one of my finer moments! Overall though the turning point where I decided to go for broke was the trade for Niklas Backstrom, which cost me my first round pick for this year. No matter how far we were going this season I wanted a legitimate starting goaltender and Backstrom is that guy.
On to the Predators Highs and Lows of the year:
Leading Scorer: Marc Savard 81GP, 40g, 48a 88p
Savard was clearly the offensive leader for the club this season, and while he's mentioned above as a bonehead move its not due to his quality in the sim...it was a pure timing issue on my part!
Best Defenceman: Robert Scuderi 80GP, 1g, 25a 26p -3
Scuderi was a -3 overall, but in his 70GP for Nashville he was actually a +8. He was a solid shutdown guy for us on the blue-line and although he never had the statistics to be considered for a weekly award, he was our most consistent defenceman.
Unsung Hero: Tom Kostopoulos 82GP, 20g, 21a 41p -1
TKO was a stalwart for me. I had numerous offers for him this season and didn't trade him as we tried to match him up against the top line of the other squad and use his defence in a shut-down role. Finishing -1 playing against these other top liners is no small feat! He also managed to put up some offence and was recognized for Unsung hero at least once through the season.
Overall the Predators had a reasonable season. We beat the initial expectations, although we clearly switched gears to make that happen. We also face some challenges this offseason:
1. The payroll which currently sits at $92.8 million is a problem. We expect that Sheldon Souray will retire....and that announcement can't come soon enough! We had been counting on Langkow to retire in the off-season as well, although that was before he came back to play a couple of NHL games.
2. We have a couple of older guys who we took on to make a push through the season who are starting to slow down (were being kind to these fellas...). Brian Rolston and Vaclav Prospal spring to mind.
3. We have a lot of bodies on our minor league teams, and we'll want to move some up in the ranks to make room for a new crop at the draft. This is somewhat contingent on the GM working his magic to find those first rounders that fall to the 5th!
Prospects and Minor Leagues:
The system is pretty good for the Predators franchise. The AHL team (winners of the IBM sponsorship) played really well and until the final days was looking at winning the regular season. Solid play from Jeff Deslauriers and a few notables on the roster gave us a consistent team heading into the playoffs:
Mike Santorelli 82GP, 57g, 68a, 125p: A solid NHLer for the Florida Panthers (20g, 21a in 82GP), Mike will be looking at a spot playing for the CPHL Predators next year.
Kris Russell: 25GP, 4g, 26a 30P: A solid NHLer for the Blue Jackets, Kris played a part of the season with the big club, but with the acquisition of Sheldon Souray he was relegated to the minors.
Other players in the minors who could be considered as bubble players for the time being:
Bobby Butler (36GP, 10g, 11a with the Ottawa Senators)
Chris Butler (49GP, 2g, 7a, 9p with the Buffalo Sabres)
Eric Tangradi (15GP, 1g, 2a, 3p with the Pittsburgh Penguins)
Vlad Zharkov (38GP, 2g, 2a, 4p with the New Jersey Devils)
Ty Wishart (20GP 1g, 5a, 6p with the New York Islanders)
Ben Bishop (7GP, 3w, 4l 2.76GAA, 1SO with St. Louis Blues)
Of note in the ECHL we have a few guys looking to be signed this off-season:
1. Anton Gustafsson: Former 1st round pick by Washington. Highly Skilled 2-way center who we hope will come to North America.
2. Jimmy Hayes: Finished up with Boston College this season and was signed by Chicago to an entry level deal.
3. Matt Donovan: Acquired at the trade deadline, Matt was signed by the Islanders to an entry level deal this spring and played 6 games for Bridgeport.
4. Tyler Beskorowany: Time flies! We drafted Tyler three years ago and he is slowly progressing. He started the year in the ECHL and moved to play for the Texas Stars by year end.
Overall I think that the Predators have some good pieces here, and while we traded away picks we didn't empty the cupboards entirely to make the run for the playoffs this spring. It is true that we have no high picks this year, but we still have some players in the system who should turnout to be solid NHLers.
Thanks to the other GMs and the Commishes for another great season!
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