Ban Price trades
Joined: Oct. 2017
Posts: 6,482
Likes: 6,455
I think it's the result of a few things:
1. John Hynes is not an NHL coach
2. The Predators draft record since 2009 has been average at best
3. Poile's cooked as a GM
4. Arizona got hot at the right time
Firing Laviolette - in my eyes - was a bit of a head scratcher, but hiring Hynes immediately after was just perplexing. I strongly believe Nashville is going to be in the market for a different coach once they get upset in game 4.
Beyond Forsberg and their defence, Nashville doesn't have the high-end pieces to compete with the giants of the Central, and now they're showing weakness to the mediocre of the Pacific. Duchene and RoJo are realistically high-end #2C's and Turris is a high-end #3C at this point in their careers. Arvidsson is a quality #2RW. With how strong St. Louis remains, with Colorado quickly catching up, and Minnesota and Chicago poised to start rising again, it's been a disaster for the Predators that Trevin and Tolvanen haven't trended better through their developments. Fiala was a bit of a letdown before getting shipped off, especially when considering some of the names that went after him in 2014.
There's either been too many assets used on the blueline or some combination of no luck and/or insufficient development when it comes to forwards selected by this franchise in the first three rounds. Now, it's starting to show: this team can't draft its own talent up front and the trades they've made to address the insufficiency up front have flopped spectacularly. I still think the Jones-Johansen swap was a disaster, and hindsight shows that Nashville bled assets in the mega three-way with Colorado and Ottawa. Poile's been at the helm since the beginning, and he doesn't have a whole hell of a lot to show for it. This is likely a natural time for him to step down and let some fresh ideas try their hand at turning this team into a contender.
Doesn't help that this was a down year in Rinne's predictable cycle. Watch, Nashville will win the central next season on hot goaltending alone.