Nashville Predators... Offensive Powerhouse?

The Preds were no joke.

They were 10th in GF/GP. Eighth in Shots/GP. Second-best power play in franchise history in the cap era. Ninth in 5v5 CF% and fifth in xGF, according to naturalstatrick.com.

Filip Forsberg scored a career-high 48 goals and 94 points, and Swedish connection Gustav Nyquist scored a career-high 75 points. Ryan O'Reilly scored 69 points (nice), his highest total since his Selke-winning, Cup-winning season with the Blues. Together, they combined for 39.9 expected goals for (min. 200 TOI), the second-highest total in the league, according to moneypuck.com.

Now add two-time Rocket Richard winner Steven Stamkos, who scored 19 power-play goals last season, and Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Marchessault, who scored a career-high 42 goals last season, to the mix.

Barry Trotz the coach was known for his defensive teams and structure, but Barry Trotz the GM has built a very good offensive team with Andrew Brunette at the helm. Brunette, by the way, deserves a lot more credit for being an offensive genius. going back to his earlier coaching days with the Devils.

The fantasy options from the Preds are now just more than Roman Josi and Juuse Saros. (With a Yahoo ADP of 142.5, Forsberg was surprisingly good and anybody who drafted him in the first five rounds was certain to have been ridiculed at the time). There's reasons to think neither O'Reilly nor Nyquist will repeat their excellent 2023-24 seasons, but the addition of Stamkos and Marchessault can make up for any kind of regression.

As it stands, the Preds are set to enter the 2024-25 season with the projected forward lines:

Forsberg - O'Reilly - Nyquist
Stamkos - Sissons - Marchessault
Jankowski - Novak - Evangelista
Smith - McCarron - Glass

RFA: Parssinen, Tomasino

There's a lot of moving parts, but I've kept a few things intact: the top line, the Jankowski-Novak-Evangelista line, and the Smith-McCarron pairing.

Stamkos and Marchessault form their second line with the defensively responsible Sissons as their center, though I can see Novak or Glass in the middle as well. They can also move Stamkos to the middle, though I think he's more of a winger than a center at this stage of his career, move Marchessault back to the left and throw in a right winger.

That second line is a huge improvement, and far better than anything they could muster in the playoffs.

With a solid second scoring line, continued improvement from Novak and Evangelista, and some intriguing prospects in the pipeline, the Preds offense should be quite formidable once again in 2024-25.

There's no glaring stat that suggests the Preds will take a huge step back. Marchessault's shooting percentage skewed high, and Stamkos' even-strength play has been declining, but it's easy to pencil both of them for 30 goals each.

The clearer candidate for a regression, in fact, might be O'Reilly. While adding more shooters to the lineup should aid him, Trotz made a point during the announcement of the Stamkos and Marchessault signings that the moves will allow the Preds to rely less on O'Reilly on special teams. It should not be surprising to see O'Reilly play fewer minutes on the power play, likely with the second unit, while he focuses on killing penalties.

The question I have will be on the power play, where Forsberg generated an overwhelming large share of the shots (95), followed by Josi (59) and O'Reilly (53). Stamkos (112) led the Lightning in this category, while Marchessault (77) trailed Jack Eichel (81) with the Knights. Who gets to pull the trigger now?

There's a chance that they start cannibalizing each other's stats, especially since Forsberg, Josi and Stamkos are known for shooting the puck.

As the lone defenseman, I think Josi still carries the most value. He was recently voted as the third-best defensemen by you, and if you factor in position scarcity in fantasy, he's still the best player to target on the Preds.

I'd be wary of reaching for Forsberg due mainly to his injury history, and remain a little doubtful of both Stamkos' and Marchessault's ability to score 40 goals again, if only because they're in a new environment and might be playing lesser roles.

Stamkos no longer has Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov to play with, and Marchessault's new center will certainly be a step down from Jack Eichel.

Will you be targeting the Preds in this upcoming 2024-25 season?

2023-24 Yahoo ADP

Steven Stamkos, 32.3 (TB)
Juuse Saros, 47.5
Roman Josi, 47.7
Jonathan Marchessault, 112.7 (VGK)
Filip Forsberg, 142.5
Ryan O'Reilly, 157.3
Gustav Nyquist, n/a
Tommy Novak, n/a

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