Martel Mailbag: Are Predators relying too much on young talent?
Welcome back for another edition of the Martel Mailbag here at FOX Sports Tennessee. This bi-weekly segment answers your questions, sent via email and Twitter, pertaining to the buzz surrounding the Nashville Predators.
If you want to submit your question, please feel free to contact me with your thoughts and maybe you'll see your question posted in the near future. Let's get started:
Looks like they're all in on relying on Filip Forsberg, Colin Wilson, Craig Smith, etc. for scoring in the playoffs. Is that enough? -- Trevor P.
No, of course not. Nashville is going to have to have some type of balanced scoring from all sides of the ice to compete for Lord Stanley's Cup. Luckily for the the Predators, they're already well on their way to getting the scoring they need.
The Predators have already seen 40 of their 170 goals on the season registered by their defense corp. It's not just the number of goals, though, but the total number of points. As a team, Nashville has registered 451 total points combined between its forwards, defenseman and goaltenders. Of those 451, the Predators have seen their defensemen collect 149. That's 33 percent of their points being scored by defensemen.
And let's not forget James Neal, Mike Ribeiro and Mike Fisher either. Those three have chipped in 109 points of their own, including 44 of Nashville's goals.
With the Predators trading for Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli this past Sunday, it just adds to their scoring depth and punch for the remainder of the season. I don't believe Nashville will just be relying on its three young stars, but they'll now have a fully balanced attack on their march to the big prize.
Can Filip Forsberg continue at a near point per game pace next season, on the same line? -- Steven L.
I don't think anything is stopping Forsberg from continuing to do so. Granted, Nashville's roster is scheduled for a giant overhaul come this summer with nine of its current forwards entering some state of free agency. Forsberg's currently at a 0.88 points per game pace this year, but he's played the majority of his time this season alongside Ribeiro, Neal, and Smith.
It'll be intriguing to see how he finishes the season with head coach Peter Laviolette currently experimenting with Nashville's lineup over the last couple of games. If it continues, could Forsberg's scoring pace drop off? If he maintains his offensive explosion this year regardless of which line he's on, there's no reason to suspect that Forsberg can't continue to do so on any line in the future while a part of Laviolette's system.
Any playoff performance concerns with this team? Nashville's players don't have a lot of playoff experience - Johnny G.
For the most part, this is an accurate statement. Most of Nashville's players have little to no experience in the postseason. A handful of them have made it through all the way to the Cup Finals, with forward Matt Cullen being the only player on the roster to actually win it.
Luckily for Nashville, it has a coach in Laviolette and an assistant coach in Kevin McCarthy who brought a Stanley Cup home to Carolina in 2006 and took the Flyers to the Finals in 2010.
Nashville will have its work cut out for it once the regular season ends. With the leadership it has and the way Rinne has been performing this season, the Predators are going to be one of the harder outs in the NHL. To be honest, if they continue to play the way they have been I don't foresee any Western Conference opponent being able to truly beat Nashville in a seven game series.
Gabriel Bourque, Taylor Beck, Craig Smith, Colin Wilson and Calle Jarnkrok are all restricted free agents on July 1st. Do you see all of them being re-signed including all of Nashville's unrestricted free agents? - Becky S.
The Predators definitely have a dilemma for them come the offseason. Nashville has six players that will be unrestricted free agents this summer: Matt Cullen, Mike Fisher, Cody Franson, Mike Ribeiro, Mike Santorelli and Anton Volchenkov. They also have the five aforementioned restricted free agents as well.
There's no reason to believe that the Predators will re-sign every one of their free agents in the next handful of months, nor should they.
With good prospects in Milwaukee waiting for their chance to break through to Nashville, it wouldn't be a surprise to see bottom six players like Beck and Bourque tendered a minimum offer or none at all. Obviously Jarnkrok, Smith and Wilson will be the primary concerns of Nashville's restricted free agent crop among the five.
In terms of their unrestricted free agents, one would have to believe that Cullen and Volchenkov will be the odd men out this season in terms of finding a new contract with the Predators. Fisher and Ribeiro are already rumored to be working with the team on a new contract. Franson and Santorelli were just traded to the team this past week and will most likely have talks once the season ends.
Nashville can't, and shouldn't, sign every one of its upcoming free agents, but certain players should definitely expect to figure something out with the Predators.
With Roman Josi playing great as well as the rest of our young defensemen, do you think Weber is expendable in a few years? - Goran J.
This is an absolutely fantastic question, one that's been asked a fair number of times since Weber signed the 14-year, $110 million offer sheet.
Let's phrase it this way: Should Nashville find a trade partner to take Shea Weber off its hands? In my opinion, I don't really believe so. Is he expendable? Any player is expendable for the right price. The Predators have the depth to be able to trade away Shea Weber at any point in time, it's just an extremely difficult decision to part with one of the most commanding defensemen in the entire league.
If Nashville were to ever choose to part ways with Weber, it could haul a Fort Knox-sized return. Top-six forward? Top-four defenseman? First-round pick? You name it, name it all and Nashville could probably have it. The problem with this? The Predators have already forked over $39 million in yearly signing-bonus payments over the first three years of his contract, with another $13 million due next season. After next year's payment, Nashville will only have $16 million left in signing-bonus payments due over the next two years before Weber's contract goes straight to salary.
Having paid out almost half of Weber's salary already, why would you trade him off? Sure teams would pay a king's ransom to move Weber's talents away from Nashville, but unless the Predators turn into a rebuilding team don't expect it to happen.
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Catch more from Kristopher Martel on his weekly podcast, The Predcast. A weekly hockey show available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and TuneIn Radio, hosts Kristopher Martel, Chris Link and Dan Bradley break down the news surrounding the Nashville Predators and around the rest of the NHL.
