The second installment in our series takes a look at the Nashville Predators. They found themselves as the prey more often than the Predator in 2013. Full stats are at the bottom of the article.
Team Name: Nashville Predators
Record: 16-23-9, fifth in Central Division, no playoffs
Player of the Season: David Legwand C
Legwand led the team with 12 goals and 13 assists. He was the main scoring threat from a fantasy perspective on a very balanced team. Only two other Predators even hit double-digit goals (Mike Fisher-10 and Gabriel Bourque-11).
Breakout of the Season: Bourque He came from nowhere to net 11 goals and nearly matched his rookie point total of 19 from a year ago. Bourque also added three power play goals and a shorthanded one so he looks to be a sneaky asset on special teams.
Disappointment of the Season: Pekka Rinne
Fantasy owners of Rinne got the goaltender they thought they were getting as Rinne made a ton of appearances. But he didn’t have the expected success that has been associated with him. He’s since had off-season hip surgery and will still need another three months to recover from it. Rinne’s 15-16-8, 2.43 GAA and .910 sv pct with five shutouts is a tough line for his owners to swallow. The main reason he looked not that impressive last season was the lack of offensive support the team gave in front of him. Three facts below stand out as to why he was a disappointment.
The team scored two goals or fewer in 22 of 48 games last season.
Rinne made 42 starts last season and 43 appearances overall.
Rinne can’t carry the team.
Rinne gets the starts but it should be interesting to see how it plays out next season between the pipes. Steve Mason is on the roster as the backup but he was ineffective (1-7-1, .873 sv pct, 3.73 GAA) so Nashville needs Rinne’s hip to heal.
Team Analysis:Nashville will have a new look as they canned associate coach Peter Horachek and replaced him with Phil Housley. Housley is important because he made a living as a defenseman who was best known as a quarterback on the power play. It couldn’t hurt since the team was 29th in goals at 2.3 per game
2013-2014 Story Lines: Nashville needs to sign Roman Josi to a contract to avoid him hitting the free agent market and taking his talents elsewhere. Can the team find a way to tighten up on the penalty kill? They were allowing one out of every five power plays against to hit the back of the net. Speaking of the net, will Nashville go out and get another goal scorer in free-agency to help fill the net?
2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Rinne, Josi, Shea Weber, Gabriel Bourque,
Guys On The Fringe: David Legwand, Mike Fisher, Colin Wilson
| PLAYER | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | ATOI | PPG | PPA | SHG | SHA | SOG | SPCT |
| Shea Weber, D | 48 | 9 | 19 | 28 | -2 | 48 | 25:55 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 124 | 7.3 |
| David Legwand, C | 48 | 12 | 13 | 25 | -6 | 20 | 18:26 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 78 | 15.4 |
| Martin Erat, LW† | 36 | 4 | 17 | 21 | -7 | 26 | 18:55 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 6.7 |
| Mike Fisher, C | 38 | 10 | 11 | 21 | 6 | 27 | 19:28 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 68 | 14.7 |
| Colin Wilson, C | 25 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 1 | 4 | 16:34 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 26.9 |
| Roman Josi, D | 48 | 5 | 13 | 18 | -7 | 8 | 23:32 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 96 | 5.2 |
| Gabriel Bourque, LW | 34 | 11 | 5 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 15:50 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 50 | 22.0 |
| Sergei Kostitsyn, LW | 46 | 3 | 12 | 15 | -5 | 11 | 16:43 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 7.1 |
| Patric Hornqvist, RW | 24 | 4 | 10 | 14 | -1 | 14 | 16:14 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 87 | 4.6 |
| Kevin Klein, D | 47 | 3 | 11 | 14 | -1 | 9 | 20:25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 54 | 5.6 |
| Nick Spaling, C | 47 | 9 | 4 | 13 | -10 | 18 | 15:52 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 57 | 15.8 |
| Craig Smith, C | 44 | 4 | 8 | 12 | -11 | 20 | 13:51 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 83 | 4.8 |
| Matt Halischuk, RW | 36 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 10 | 11:57 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 9.8 |
| Richard Clune, LW | 47 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 113 | 9:24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 8.7 |
| Bobby Butler, RW† | 20 | 3 | 6 | 9 | -2 | 4 | 11:23 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 10.7 |
| Brandon Yip, RW | 34 | 3 | 5 | 8 | -3 | 26 | 12:02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 8.6 |
| Taylor Beck, LW | 16 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 16:06 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 7.7 |
| Victor Bartley, D | 24 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 19:33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0.0 |
| Jonathon Blum, D | 35 | 1 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 6 | 14:18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 3.8 |
| Ryan Ellis, D | 32 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 15 | 16:23 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 4.2 |
| Paul Gaustad, C | 23 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -1 | 20 | 15:13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 5.7 |
| Chris Mueller, RW | 18 | 2 | 3 | 5 | -4 | 6 | 10:42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 9.1 |
| Daniel Bang, RW | 8 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -2 | 0 | 12:54 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0.0 |
| Zach Boychuk, C † | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 13:42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 12.5 |
| Scott Hannan, D † | 29 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -11 | 20 | 19:30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0.0 |
| Filip Forsberg, C | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -5 | 0 | 15:29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0.0 |
| Joonas Rask, C | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 8:01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Austin Watson, LW | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 0 | 12:42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 25.0 |
| Kevin Henderson, LW | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 14:42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 33.3 |
| Mattias Ekholm, D | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 16:05 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Hal Gill, D | 32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 12 | 13:23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0.0 |
| Brian McGrattan, RW† | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6:17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| PLAYER | GP | W | L | OTL | GAA | TOI | SV | SV% | SHO | TGA | TSA | PIM |
| Pekka Rinne | 43 | 15 | 16 | 8 | 2.43 | 2443:46 | 1002 | .910 | 5 | 99 | 1101 | 8 |
| Chris Mason | 11 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 3.73 | 466:44 | 200 | .873 | 0 | 29 | 229 | 0 |
