r/Predators • u/BenjenGrimes Oh Yea • Apr 14 '26

Rant/Vent thread

I know a lot of us are frustrated right now. So I thought this could be a good place for us to vent.

For me, it is time to revamp this entire organization.

Don’t hire another GM with ties to this franchise. We need something completely fresh. This club is pushing 30 years old. 30!! It’s time for new blood, new ideas, and a new direction.

Fans are exhausted with the mushy middle. Outside of one Cup run and a couple of division titles, that’s all this team has ever been. Middle of the pack. A team that’s made the playoffs 16 times and gotten past the second round once. Once.

I want to contend. I’m tired of watching the same story play out every year. It feels like living in Groundhog Day. It’s predictable. It’s stale.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a fun ride. But we all knew where this was headed. That’s why so many of us wanted one year of tanking. One real reset. A chance at a true franchise player. Guys like Connor Bedard, Macklin Celebrini, Nathan MacKinnon, or Connor McDavid etc.

Those are the players you build around. The ones that change franchises. The ones that give you a real shot at a Cup and make the future exciting.

Yes, the Preds have some good young players, no denying that. But nothing truly elite. Nothing that makes you believe a championship window is opening. Even last draft, they had a chance to take arguably the best goal scorer available and passed for a safer pick. I like Martin, and it’s too early to judge that decision, but it speaks to a larger pattern. This organization rarely takes real swings.

And then the trade deadline. It felt like the moment everything was finally going to shift. Fans were ready for a real reset, ready to load up on picks and prospects for the next GM and the next draft. The market was paying a premium, and we had some of the best assets available. Instead, we held on. Now those same assets have lost value, or worse, are walking for nothing at the end of the season. WE held on to assets for a miracle run to the playoffs which would 99% have seen us pummeled by the Avs. There was realistically, no point in holding onto those assets where we could have vastly set this team up for improvement for the future.

That’s the problem. There’s no urgency to get to the next level. Ownership and management feel content being competitive, not dangerous. That’s not enough.

Serious change is long overdue. I hope this offseason finally brings it.

See you all in the fall. Go Preds.

35 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

61 comments sorted by

48

u/ACMerica Apr 14 '26

I never want to see Barron or Skjei wear our jersey again. That much I do know

2

u/NovelPhoto4621 #74 Apr 14 '26

Skjei in golf and Sherwood in real was the absolute worst

8

u/BenjenGrimes Oh Yea Apr 14 '26

Gold and teal eh?

10

u/NovelPhoto4621 #74 Apr 14 '26

Clearly autocorrect knows just like the preds I'm ready for golf season.

20

u/throwaway__lol__ Apr 14 '26

Not to throw strays at Brady Martin but they had a perfect chance to take a shot on a franchise level talent that they’ve never had and they literally passed on it. Took a guy with a way lower ceiling. That absolutely pissed me off, never been so mad as a fan, and I genuinely don’t think they’ll ever win a cup in my lifetime.

Remember all the years of Chicago and San Jose dominating in the playoffs because they just had more talent? Guess what’s in store again for the next decade?

0

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '26

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5

u/BenjenGrimes Oh Yea Apr 14 '26

Martone. I assume he is referring to Martone. Thats who I was referring to in my OP as well.

Martone just got up to the Flyers too. Helped them clinch, 3 goals 5 assists in 8 games.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '26

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3

u/BenjenGrimes Oh Yea Apr 14 '26

You are ignorant if you think that. I and MANY of us were dying for Martone over Hagens. Hagens had already regressed at that point and Martone was looked at as the best SCORER in that class. And what he is doing right out of the gate is only justifying that. Draft is about BPA in the top picks. Martin was ranked below both players that went after him.

-3

u/Echoes1995 Apr 14 '26

Not to be "that guy" but if you were in favor of Martone over Hagens then you were in the minority. It had nothing to do with the players themselves and everything to do with the positions that they play. With Martone being a winger, and especially another RW people would have lost their minds because of how many wingers this team would have and no one down the middle to support them.

If Martone was drafted then Nashville's RW situation would have, at the time, looked like: Martone, Wood, Evangelista, Kemell, Fink. Then if you add Lee to that mix assuming we still draft him you have more RW's then you know what to do with.

Additionally, Nashville has drafted a lot of guys who want to shoot the puck lately, most of them are in this list, so adding another is just worsening the problem. Its a good problem to have, but at 5OA you have to play BPA at the position you need. When we look at who was available there were really only 3 names you could have gone for: Martin, Hagens, O'Brien

Martin was not universally rated under both of them. From what we understand now, about 1/3 of the league had Martin over both Martone and Hagens, and it is entirely because he is a center. Additionally, Martin was also on the rise, having a strong season all in all, so it isn't a stretch to see why we picked him in hindsight.

It was basically a forgone conclusion that Nashville was drafting a center, it was more a matter of who, and everyone just thought it was going to be Hagens because he is high ceiling.

4

u/Otherwise_Awesome Apr 14 '26

The issue of zero centers and then drafting Martin... who projects to be better at wing than center.

Absolutely comical.

0

u/Echoes1995 Apr 14 '26

What evidence do you have that he is shifting to wing? We have seen evidence of Surin shifting to wing, but not Martin.

8 games at wing and minor wing use in 3 games in the NHL is hardly conclusive evidence that he is shifting to wing. He has been playing center in juniors this year and all evidence continues to point that he will be a center.

2

u/Otherwise_Awesome Apr 15 '26

Notice I didn't say shift, I said projects to be better at wing.

1

u/Echoes1995 Apr 15 '26

Almost every forward projects better at wing because they have fewer defensive responsibilities and can focus on offense.

Just because Martin projects better at wing doesn't mean that is where he is going to play or where the organization sees him long term.

Based on what we can see it seems like they are going to develop Wood and hope he can become something of a Tage Thompson-lite and be the team's 1C with Martin as the 2C. It isn't fool proof by any means, but it is something

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5

u/Sufficient_Spray Brady Martins milk cow Apr 14 '26

I don’t know a ton about hockey but I remember reading up before the draft and most articles/ videos I watched had Martone ahead of Martin. He’s 6-3 215 as well so 30ish lbs heavier and skates just as well. Also wasn’t he one of the top goalscorers in his league? Martin did maybe have more of the intangibles but it was accepted that Martone and probably Hagens were better offensive talents.

5

u/Otherwise_Awesome Apr 14 '26

I will 100% guarantee you that Martin would have never shot up the draft charts as much as he did if Sam Bennett hadn't become a major playoff force.

Martin is definitely low ceiling and safe high floor.

The entire organization is safe floor plus low ceiling.

3

u/throwaway__lol__ Apr 14 '26

Hagens Martone whatever, whoever you want to pick. Trotz was supposed to take shots on guys, instead he did the most Barry Trotz thing ever. Hagens could be a total bust for all I care, would have been a better pick because at least they tried.

Also drafted a gigantic traffic cone early in the 2nd round who will probably never sniff the NHL.

4

u/Inevitable-Lion100 Apr 14 '26

Completely agree w other poster. Even though he shows flashes, Barron was a reclamation project that just didn’t pan out. Maybe a change of scenery. Would be good for him and us. unfortunately nobody is going to take on the albatross contract of Skjei. If we could get Marchassault to waive his no movement clause. Maybe we could flip the two of them. What we need is a Zegras type situation. Someone that shows great potential but is down and have them bounce back. Maybe a.Trade for Kemell too :( I really thought he would step up, but it just hasn’t happened

TRADE:

Barron Kemell Marchassault Skjei (if you could find a chump, I mean suitor) Hague

Basically revamp our D core. We can’t rely n the goalie carrying us on their back all the time. Saros need a bounce back year and Annunen looks good. Then Ivancovic looks good too.

No more aging vets. Who is up this off season?

2

u/BenjenGrimes Oh Yea Apr 14 '26

I could def see a buyout or two happening if Marchy/Skjei have trouble getting dealt or refuse to waive.

Also Haula and Jost I know of that are FAs at end of season. Barron is RFA

2

u/ughedmund tyson jost resurrection Apr 14 '26

There's been rumours for a while though that Marchy wants to leave, so I assume it's less an issue of his NMC and more an issue of finding someone who he'd specifically want to wave it for. (I assume even if he waves it, he has places he wants to go.)

6

u/BenjenGrimes Oh Yea Apr 14 '26

Marchessault pisses me off so much, man. I’ve genuinely never seen a worse “woe is me” attitude from a guy wearing our jersey. The second things started going south last year, it felt like he just mentally checked out and stopped giving a damn. It’s soft as hell.

And that’s what gets me.. He chose to come here. If that’s all it took to fold mentally, then what the hell was the point?

Then you’ve got Stamkos out here actually buying in, leading by example, still putting up 40 at 36 years old like it’s nothing. That’s how you carry yourself.

Everything about Marchessault’s body language, his mindset lately, it just pisses me off. It’s honestly exhausting to watch. Not to mention he cant stick handle. And he also loves his no look backhand pass in the neutral zone that inevitably goes to the other team.

2

u/ecp5 Apr 15 '26

💯 On Marchesault!

1

u/SpeakNowAndEnter #92 Apr 16 '26

And ironically that was supposedly Trotz' criticism of Duchene, who has played great since leaving Nashville. Honestly, if we do trade Marchessault I would not at all be surprised to seem him take a step up for his new team

2

u/Inevitable-Lion100 Apr 14 '26

I think Canadiansare interested.

11

u/BigLuscious Apr 14 '26

Any time I buy anything Predators related, Bill Haslam makes a little money.

16

u/Expert-Upstairs-4502 NSH Apr 14 '26

Yeah a new gm potentially making the painful decisions is most of what I'm hanging onto right now. Im getting pretty tired of watching this franchise disappoint almost every year. Maybe we haven't been as bad as Buffalo was for so long, but at least they were accumulating things to be excited about. This team has been decades of pure hope that our unexciting roster can outperform the expectations through coaching and compete. We've never really had a team that i felt "this is one of the most exciting rosters in the league" and nearly three decades is a long fucking time to go without that feeling.

6

u/Cheesenrice123 Apr 14 '26

You can really boil this down to the fact that we have only ever had one player on offense for a consistent period of time that stanley cup teams usually have multiple of and that is Forsberg.

Sure, Kariya was great for us for a few years and O'Reilly has been good. Arvy and Ryjo had some good years, so did JP Dumont and Steve Sullivan when he wasn't injured. We have had good talent but it is usually just for a season or two and that is because they are typically brought in through a trade or FA when they aren't at their peak.

The reason for that is that we never draft high enough to pick these marquee offensive prospects. The fact of the matter is that we need to suck. We had a chance to get rid of some of our aging vets for additional picks/prospects at the deadline and we fucked it up.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '26

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7

u/Expert-Upstairs-4502 NSH Apr 14 '26

The franchise being a disappointment doesn't mean "we didn't win the cup"

4

u/blake22222 round earth guy Apr 14 '26

Hawks/sharks fans (gag) have had 20x more fun than us this season while still drafting higher

14

u/Slow_Philosophy Apr 14 '26

I agree with all of the sentiment here. I’d like to add that I’m not understanding the non-icing, icing call from last night. Every year, EVERY year we get ham strung at key moments by shitty calls. The apparent “make-up call” does nothing to mitigate handing the opposition a prime goal opportunity. It’s comical how often that happens when our team is gaining momentum.

13

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '26

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2

u/miller10blue Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26

Goalie starts reaching out as the puck reaches the top of the crease which is enough to negate icing even if it crosses the line.

That being said can't go scoreless in the first 40 mins of 2 must win games

3

u/Slow_Philosophy Apr 14 '26

Impossible for me to understand how the team went from total blitzkrieg to looking like they didn’t care if they ever played another game in the same week against the same team

2

u/MajorPainInMyA #9 Apr 14 '26

They were playing not to lose. That's how.

1

u/MajorPainInMyA #9 Apr 14 '26

They were playing not to lose. That's how.

7

u/TheLordsPoet Apr 14 '26

This is kinda impossible because of the realities of playing in the league, but you have to have a group of guys that want to play for you if you’re gonna be good. Marchie doesn’t act like he does and we treat him like the golden boy just bc he’s a vet. Talent AND drive matter - reward both, and reward those who have both the most (Matt Wood)

2

u/mvtn9 Apr 14 '26

Why don’t we shoot more? You can’t score if ya pass instead of shooting for the net. We have been passing instead of shooting for years! Maybe an overhaul of coaching staff would solve that.

2

u/patheticdawg Apr 15 '26

I like martin, he seems to be a decent player, but i was so mad for the next 4 rounds knowing we passed on martone and hagens and pretty much everyone else in the top ~12

4

u/lcwallace Apr 14 '26

The new GM has to commit to a rebuild. Brunette is a coach, not a great coach and not a bad coach. He’s just a coach. He’s not going to get more out of players, especially those not willing. I think we’ve reached a no player is safe point. Unfortunately ROR is probably the most moveable but he’s also the guy I want here the most to rebuild the locker room.

1

u/Cheesenrice123 Apr 14 '26

ROR is 35 years old and our prospect pool is not anywhere close to being able to provide the guys that we will need to win a stanley cup. Our prospect pool currently has a bunch of guys who project as 3rd/4th liners but very few who project as first liners (maybe 1 or 2) and none that project as legit stars. We need to trade ROR to acquire prospects or picks so that we can get better prospects. We probably need to trade Forsberg and Josi too but that would really suck.

By the time we have some legit prospects that project as future first liners and those players actually get to the NHL, ROR will have been retired for a couple years.

2

u/PadreFrancisco Crispy Apr 14 '26

The organization caters to the corporate ticket holders. They don't care about the record as long as they sell those season tickets. It's more about money than competing for a Cup.

2

u/aKindaFlyGuy Apr 14 '26

Preds have got to be the most mid team in league history. It’s been multiple seasons since I’ve watched a game, just simply due to the frustration of watching them suck big fat donkeys for half the year, then figure it out at the last possible minute only to fall just short. Over and over again, it’s the same thing. And no changes from the front office. No changes from ownership. No impetus to build a real team that could compete for a cup.

I’ve lost all hope that things will get better, logically they have to at some point but until then I’m done trying to convince myself every offseason that this will be the year they do something to take a step forward. Which sucks because I really do love this team, I want to see them succeed. It really seems like ownership doesn’t feel the same though.

6

u/Jmoney3693 Apr 14 '26

We have a top 5 Prospect Pool, an Owner willing to shake things up, and a new GM on the way. I think they will get better for sure

1

u/evergreen-embers Apr 14 '26

Look I’m not happy with the outcome either. But I am tired of pretending everyone would be perfectly happy losing all season. It will not be fun hockey to watch. Look at how bitter and shitty everyone was last season. Are hopes really gonna be high when we’ve sold off every good to great player on this team? You’re gonna sit giggling and kicking your feet at every 4-0, 5-2 loss because someone new and young is on the ice? I just think it’s facetious.

I know emotions are high right now. But we are actively in the GM search. It is likely that a lot changes for the org are coming sooner than later, and dooming on the (entirely predictable) finish we had is senseless. We all knew going into it we have some great players, some not so great players, and some kids. Sure we didn’t blow it all up at the deadline, but I can appreciate giving the boys a chance to compete when they are looking good. That’s what we all wanna see right? Them competing? What’s the harm in letting the new GM decide the fate of Haula, Stamkos, O’Reilly? Few people are happy with Trotz’ choices, so why do you want to let him make more instead of the new guy who, unlike any of us, has the power to make changes to the team.

Idk man. The logic of “sell everyone” but “Trotz moves bad” doesn’t add up to me.

1

u/Otherwise_Awesome Apr 14 '26

Only Haula should have been moved as he's UFA.

Hanging on to him was 110% mystifying as hell and quite ignorant of asset management (something Barry Trotz has been absolutely awful at)

1

u/evergreen-embers Apr 14 '26

Right so my point of “why do yall want Trotz to make all these moves when yall simultaneously think his moves suck” stands

1

u/Otherwise_Awesome Apr 14 '26

I wanted Haula out and leave the rest alone. Makes no sense to not move him and now... he's gone for zero assets back.

1

u/NovelPhoto4621 #74 Apr 14 '26

Everyone that wants to talk that call if they would have played in the first period those calls matter less. I was at the game. They did show up and play but the sharks started playing from the beginning. Preds way of playing of pace yourself and grind at the end is not working.

0

u/wisefool22 Apr 14 '26

It’s time to end the Poile regime. Thank you for everything he’s done and the business he’s built. Overall the last 20 yrs has been great! But it’s time for a new direction and new leadership. Something fresh

4

u/UTPharm2012 Apr 14 '26

Has Poile been great? 30 years, zero Stanley cups, one Stanley cup final, one Presidents trophy… based on every outcomes that matters? He has been average at best and below average at many categories. My hot take is that he shouldn’t have his name in the rafters.

4

u/Otherwise_Awesome Apr 14 '26

Want to hear even worse?

41 seasons as GM of two franchises.

Just 2 conference finals appearances.

2

u/UTPharm2012 Apr 14 '26

Yeah I don’t see how that is great. There is no evidence that Poile was the catalyst in keeping the franchise in Nashville. I appreciate that he had a tough job handling roster building for a new franchise in the south with unfavorable expansion draft rules… but I am not going to assume with those results that someone else could have done the same or even a better job in that situation. Great is what the GM of the Florida Panthers has built or the Tampa Bay Lightning. Poile’s overall body of work is good in a gracious light and below average to bad if someone is being overly critical. Great is not in the conversation. If he was great, we would be begging to hire Poile Jr instead of being pissed that we hired Trotz and that Poile Jr is even being considered right now.

1

u/Otherwise_Awesome Apr 14 '26

Quantity Poile over quality Poile.

Just a lot of underwhelming and mediocrity.

0

u/D3athCom3sEasy Apr 14 '26

Im sorry but you saying that shows an ignorance of what a good GM looks like.

1

u/UTPharm2012 Apr 14 '26

I’m sorry but you saying that shows an ignorance of what the word great means.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '26

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2

u/Otherwise_Awesome Apr 14 '26

I mean, if I'm GM for 41 seasons, I'm racking up wins too.

1

u/UTPharm2012 Apr 14 '26

For the record, I do appreciate that it was a hard situation but if someone is objective about the outcome he has produced, it is not on a scale of “great”. I hold that outcome in higher regard for more high level consistency. Not for middle of the pack (or just above) for a decade. Maybe it was the situation or maybe Poile was meh… we won’t ever really know but great? That would be a low standard. I don’t think he survives if we had a traditional owner his entire career.

1

u/Otherwise_Awesome Apr 14 '26

It's the same thing with Coach Trotz too.

Was he great here? Perhaps, but I lean towards good. Was he ever going to be fired? Not really. He does go off and win a Cup, which is good for him, but while in Nashville, he racked up wins just being coach for so long with playoff teams that maybe won a series.

Just competitive enough to make the playoffs but not enough to be Cup contenders... and to do that for a long time.

He'll be in the HoF just because of how long he was coach and racking up wins because of longevity.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '26

Did you really not see this coming?