For the last 20 years (12 with The Hockey News) Dobber and the team have reviewed each team from a fantasy-hockey standpoint and graded them.

The 21st annual review will appear here on DobberHockey throughout the summer. This is not a review of the likely performance on the ice or in the standings, but in the realm of fantasy hockey both for the season ahead as well as the foreseeable future. Offensively, will the team perform? Are there plenty of depth options worthy of owning in keeper leagues? What about over the next two or three years? These questions are what we take into consideration when looking at the depth chart and the player potential on that depth chart.

Enjoy!

Gone – Head Coach John Hynes, Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansen, Cal Foote, Mark Borowiecki, plus the exodus from last year's trade deadline

Incoming – Head Coach Andrew Brunette, Ryan O'Reilly. Luke Schenn, Gustav Nyquist, Denis Gurianov

Impact of changes – The Predators are in the middle of a reset, and there is a lot of youth that is trying to find its way into the lineup. The subtraction of nearly half of last year's opening night roster by July 1^st of this year, really opened up a lot of spots for those young faces. Up front, the addition of O'Reilly should really support those players, and take away a lot of the heavy lifting in the defensive zone. The additions of Nyquist and Gurianov are a little more curious though, as they will fill a similar role as what prospects Luke Evangelista Juuso Parssinen, and Philip Tomasino could have. As a result, one or more of them will likely be pushed out of a scoring role.

On defence, Luke Schenn will bring a steadying presence, possibly alongside Roman Josi at even strength. This would free up Tyson Barrie (likely alongside Ryan McDonagh) to feed on all of the offensive zone faceoffs. Schenn and Barrie being brought in over the last six months as two right-shot defencemen isn't a great omen for Alex Carrier and Dante Fabbro (also both right-shot defencemen). If the latter two want to be regulars in the lineup, one may have to play on his off-side, or risk losing time to Jeremy Lauzon.

Ready for Full Time –

The forward trio mentioned above of Evangelista, Parssinen, and Tomasino, are all ready for full seasons. They played a combined 100 games last season, and scored 58 points. Evangelista and Tomasino did well in sheltered minutes, while Parssinen struggled a little as a middle-six centre. The addition of ROR should allow Parssinen to start more than half of his shifts in the offensive zone for a change.

There could be room for all three to be regulars, and based on comments from GM Barry Trotz about swinging on upside, as well as how Head Coach Andrew Brunette has historically handled his offensive talent, the organization is more likely to initially put them in position to thrive.

Fantasy Outlook:

Running last year's tandem back in net is a good thing here. The remarkably consistent Saros remains one of the better fantasy goalies, and should be a 60+ start workhorse once again on a team that will finish somewhere around the playoff bubble. Behind him, Kevin Lankinen made the most of his 20 appearances, putting up very similar numbers to Saros. He's a capable backup, and would be worth scooping up as a handcuff or as a short-term starter in the case of Saros missing an extended period.  

On defence the offensive blueliners Josi and Barrie that we discussed already are the two to note for standard fantasy purposes. The two both continued to see over three minutes of power play time, though it was mostly separate with one running each unit. It is likely that both will continue to split time, as Brunette's history shows a long track record of only one defenceman on the top unit. Sorting out who that will be is an interesting guessing game at this point, but as a right-shot, Tyson Barrie might be best suited to be feeding pucks to the right-shot Filip Forsberg as Nashville's biggest scoring threat.

Last year's top power play unit generally consisted of Duchene, Johansen, Mikael Granlund, and Filip Forsberg. Only one of those forwards remains with the team, meaning there is a lot up in the air for that deployment. Do the newcomers ROR and Nyquist get the first shot, or will the second unit, primarily made up of Cody Glass, Tommy Novak, and Luka Evangelista be promoted to the prime slots? Regardless, aside from Forsberg, there may not be another forward above a 60-point pace this year.

Over the past few years the Predators have been an excellent overall source of Hits and PIMs. They won't have Tanner Jeannot or Mark Borowiecki to help out in those columns anymore, but between Colton Sissons, Yakov Trenin, Luke Schenn, Jeremy Lauzon, and others, the team should overall finish well in those categories. Hopefully they haven't switched their home stat trackers this year either.

Grade – B- (last year was B+)