Nashville Predators eliminated: Three things they should do in the offseason

The Nashville Predators have finally been eliminated. After a valiant post-trade deadline effort, the Predators time has finally come. In those five weeks, the Predators showed a level of fight they hadn’t shown all season. With the haul that David Poile received in his final few days at the helm of the Predators front office, there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic about where the Predators are headed going into the offseason.

What should the Nashville Predators do during the off-season?

#1 Draft, Draft, Draft

Out of seven rounds in this upcoming draft, the Nashville Predators will have 12 selections. Out of those 12, seven of those will come in the first three rounds. With one of the deepest draft classes in NHL history, the Predators have the opportunity to create a young core that will be exciting for decades to come.

The opportunity is there for the Predators’ scouting department more than anyone. Most of those picks will come late in the round due to the Predators’ resurgence this season and the teams that they dealt with. The Predators need to make sneaky selections at the end of rounds to ensure that they can build something exciting for the future.

#2 Get cap certainty

The Predators have four expiring forwards this offseason and three expiring defensemen. With a limited amount of cap space, the Predators could be wheeling and dealing in the trade market once again. They’lll need to re-sign some key RFA’s this offseason and gain some cap certainty heading into the future.

The most important of those players is Cody Glass, who despite being an NHL veteran at the age of 24, is still only an RFA. The Predators will need to think long and hard before re-signing Glass, who could fetch a decent return in the trade market. The same can be said of a guy like Rasmus Asplund.

#3 Plan a course of action

Just think of the top-end talent that the Nashville Predators have. Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg, Matt Duchene, just to name a few. The core is still intact here, and under the right management, the Nashville Predators could easily return to prominence.

The Predators need to make a decision. Should they buy in and make another run at the playoffs, or should they sell? The NHL Trade Deadline moves could point to the latter, but as previously stated, the talent is still there.