October is finally here!
Seven days till Opening Night in Smashville with all the pomp and circumstance, the Predators are 1 or 2 player decisions away from their opening night roster after the reassignments announced yesterday.
Pred Nation knew Juuse Saros was heading to Milwaukee and Colton Sissons, despite having an excellent camp, was also no surprise. Cody Bass being placed on waivers with the purpose of reassigning was also not unexpected… but the surprise may have been Steve Moses’ reassignment.
We saw the almost breathtaking speed and the excellent hands. We also saw the smallish forward get bounced around quite a bit as well. Adjusting back to the smaller ice surface may take 10-15 games with the Admirals, and with the depth of talent on this team, it’s a fairly simple decision to make.
It is also a sign of the maturing of this franchise’s talent pipeline.
Think back a few years, players like Kevin Fiala and Sissons and Moses may have been forced into NHL duty a little earlier in their development by a dearth of offensive talent on the roster. That is not the case for the Nashville Predators system any more, you could make a case that for the first time in franchise history, there is more high end offensive talent on the prospect roster than defensive, and being able to send that talent down for seasoning in Milwaukee is paying dividends. Look no further than a certain forward wearing the number 9. There was plenty of wailing and gnashing of teeth while Filip Forsberg spent that year in Milwaukee… but you can’t argue with the results.
And we haven’t even began to talk about some of the players waiting in the wings… Harvard senior Jimmy Vesey, big Russian forwards Yakov Tehnin and Vladislav Kamenev and recent acquisition Max Rinehart, who also showed well in camp.
With 25 on the roster (and Bass on waivers as I write this) - the Predators will have to send at least one more player to Milwaukee and unless a blueliner gets hurt over the next week, I do expect Anthony Bitetto to be the odd man out. I can’t see him being on the opening night roster over Victor Bartley as the 7th d-man.
The Preds close out the preseason in Columbus Saturday night.
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Random Notes
- We had a great season premiere of SlapShot Radio last night… if you missed it live, check it out here…
- The Predators have put three players on TSN’s ranking of the top NHL players. Shea Weber, Pekka Rinne and Roman Josi.
- Pete mentioned this on the show last night and I wanted to point it out, it does appear that Nashville is developing a “Top Nine… vs. a “Top Six… …
- Pittsburgh just finished playing three preseason games in three nights. Can't see how that is productive.
- Antti Raanta's name was left off the Stanley Cup... deny it all you want, but his comments about the team HAD to have played in the decision.
- PTO players don't seem to be having any luck... David Booth, Curtis Glencross, Andrej Meszaros, Tom Sestito... all have been released from their PTOs...
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SlapShot Radio is back for our eighth season, the season premiere podcast is posted. We are back for our next show on 10/14 at 7pm on 102.5 the Game.
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