The Nashville Predators have never won the Stanley Cup despite getting very close, but they did assemble a handful of past winners that helped the team have a strong season in 2023-24.
Players like Ryan O’Reilly, Ryan McDonagh, and Luke Schenn all won the Stanley Cup before and know what it takes to not only win in the playoffs, but ramp it up down the stretch and make the playoffs. With McDonagh gone, it leaves a big hole and a lot of money for the Predators to use on forwards and defense. After losing a winner, a goal should be to bring in another one in some way.
Marner Isn’t a Winner
Whenever Toronto Maple Leafs’ Mitch Marner is brought up in trade conversation, the first team mentioned is always Nashville because of the money and lack of top-6 talent. Not only is Juuse Saros being named as the primary piece in the return something the Predators shouldn’t consider, Marner isn’t a winner and hasn’t proven otherwise at the NHL level yet.
Marner has been a part of eight playoffs now for a total of 57 games. The Maple Leafs have won just one series and he has 50 playoff points in his career. In three of the eight short playoff runs, I can confidently say that he has been good. The other five are very much up for discussion, especially the first round performance this year.
For a player that has never recorded fewer than 60 points in a regular season and is above a point-per-game in six consecutive seasons now, Marner has only accomplished that in three playoffs and has never scored more than three goals in one postseason, going scoreless in two as well.
Consistency has to be considered when adding someone at the level Marner is at. If one of the team’s best players does very little once the playoffs start, success won’t follow. Marner recorded just one goal and three points in seven games against the Boston Bruins this postseason. He was either noticeable in a bad way in most of the games or not noticeable at all. He showed up for 1-2 games and was needed even more in the series because William Nylander and Auston Matthews missed a few games each.4
Marner isn’t worth $10.9 million AAV right now because the postseason matters and adds or decreases value on a contract. He is soft when the games get rougher in the playoffs. Even on his next deal he hasn’t proven enough to warrant $11 million+. The Predators have lots of room to add and there are more than enough winners to target instead.
Winners That Could Be Available
It’s going to be very difficult for the Tampa Bay Lightning to re-sign Steven Stamkos and the Vegas Golden Knights to re-sign Chandler Stephenson. These are two targets that the Predators should absolutely go after if they become available.
Stamkos hasn’t priced himself out of Tampa Bay, the Predators just helped in ensuring that the Lightning don’t have much cap space to work with after trading McDonagh back to them. Stamkos put together another point-per-game season and scored 40 goals. He is a two-time Stanley Cup winner and has 50 goals and 101 points in the playoffs.
Stephenson broke out after joining the Golden Knights and the team has been benefiting from having him on such a great deal for a while now. He is finally up for a new contract and now that Vegas brought in Tomas Hertl, there isn’t much space down the middle or cap-wise to keep Stephenson who is going to need a big raise.
Stephenson can absolutely be a top-6 center for the Predators. He served as a top line center for the Golden Knights at times and did very well. He is a two-time Cup winner as well and had a massive playoffs last year when the Golden Knights won at all, putting up 10 goals and 20 points in 22 games.
Even if the Predators are also looking to bring in a free agent for the wing in the top-6, there are cheaper and more effective players for the postseason that are also winners. UFAs without a contract at this moment who are former winners include Jake Guentzel, Jonathan Marchessault, Teuvo Teravainen, and Vladimir Tarasenko, but another couple of names that could also be added to that list are Sam Reinhart and Chris Tanev depending on how the rest of the playoffs play out.
The Predators do need a couple of upgrades this offseason, but Marner just isn’t the answer for them.
