The Nashville Predators were crowned winners of the offseason after landing Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei in free agency. It didn't translate to victories on the ice, though.
Nashville owns the third-worst record in the NHL ahead of Tuesday's action, nearly a year removed from the second-half heater that pushed the team into the playoffs in 2023-24.
General manager Barry Trotz reflected on what's gone wrong during an interview with The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun.
"One of the things that I learned about, in terms of the legacy players, they do take longer to assimilate and to feel comfortable and to feel like it's more their team," Trotz said, referencing Stamkos and Marchessault. "So I'm hoping those legacy players feel more comfortable in Nashville and assimilate better next year. That's the one take I can honestly say I thought it would be a little quicker and it wasn't."
Neither Stamkos nor Marchessault have produced as hoped. Stamkos has potted 23 goals after scoring 40 a year ago, while Marchessault has notched 19 goals after tallying 42 a year ago.
But Trotz doesn't place the blame on them. He also doesn't regret signing them both through at least 2028.
"If Stammer and Marchy weren't scoring for us, I don't know who would be scoring, we'd have Filip Forsberg and maybe Ryan O'Reilly. But you know, I don't regret adding some of that veteran scoring to our group," Trotz said. "In terms of our overall team, I'm just disappointed we didn't have any career years. We had a lot of guys that I would say underperformed. That's a reflection of the whole group."
Goaltender Juuse Saros, who finished top five in Vezina Trophy voting in each of the last three seasons, has also struggled with a career-worst .896 save percentage. Trotz says that's more of a reflection of the defense in front of him.
"We haven't been consistent enough in our overall team play to give our goaltenders a chance. It was unfair to our goalies this year, defensively, when we weren't good enough."
The Predators will aim to right the ship in 2025-26. They'll enter the offseason with $18 million in cap space and three first-round picks in the upcoming draft.
