Why the Predators Believe They Will Build Off This Season
The Nashville Predators are coming off its second consecutive season of missing out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Fresh off a 38-34-10 season, the Predators showed throughout the season that they were a team that never quit on the season and played until the very end.
After starting the season 6-12-2 in the first 20 games, the Predators were behind the eight ball for essentially the course of the season. But Nashville rebounded from a bad start and ended up missing out on the final playoff spot by just four points.
Going forward, though, Nashville believes that they can and will build off the grit the team showed this season. Nashville Predators head coach Andrew Brunette detailed in Monday’s end of season press conference why he has hope in building off this season going into the 2026-2027 season.
“I think they put some foundational blocks in and it took a lot of work. I thought going back to last year at this time, sitting back with our older guys and understanding this is where we are as a franchise. We have to bring these young guys in and we’re going to need them and we’re going to have to grow them,” Brunette said.
One of the noteworthy things about the makeup of this Predators’ roster is that it features a mix of well-known veterans in Steven Stamkos, Roman Josi and others while also having younger guys like Matthew Wood.
Though there may be a large difference in age range on the roster, Brunette feels that the veterans have meshed well with the younger guys and have taught the younger guys on the roster plenty.
“I think of the job Filip Forsberg did with Brady Martin and Matthew Wood, he made them feel comfortable. And they maybe didn’t see the rewards right away, but they stayed with it just like the rest of them and it speaks of their character,” Brunette said. “It was kind of Ryan O’Reilly’s idea to have small groups so they can go for lunch and talk about hockey and they’d come see me if a younger player was not feeling comfortable or needed guidance. So, we really worked together, but it was our veteran guys, our leadership.”
And it is precisely this roster makeup of veterans and younger guys that have come together nicely that gives the Predators hope for the future. The more the veterans mentor the younger players and the more experience the team gets playing together, the more reason to believe that this franchise can continue to improve.
Going into next year, the Predators hope to continue building on that. The foundation has been built, now it is time to build the rest.
“Organizationally, I think it’s amazing. They put the foundation in to hopefully keep growing this. Now, saying that all the time, it’s a new year next year. You got to keep continuing. We understood the building blocks. Now, we got to keep cementing them and growing them,” Brunette said.
Follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram for the latest news.
Graham Baakko is a lead writer for both Nashville Predators On SI and Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham graduated from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as an intern for GamecockCentral.