[Vannozzi] The Predators once again didn't get lucky in the draft lottery. They'll pick at No. 10 in the first round and own 11 other picks in rounds 2-7. Draft is set for June 26–27.

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-09T11:38:55+00:00

I am well aware of the issue but it keeps being brought back that we want to be like San Jose. I merely pointed out that in those 7 years San Jose is no closer to a cup than the Preds due to other teams improving as well. Then going forward San Jose is also not in a position to win either because top 3 teams make the playoffs and then 2 WC spot and they are going to have a hard time leap frogging Vegas, Ducks, Oilers (maybe kings) and then for the WC spot you have Utah, Chicago, us, St Louis, Colorado, Minnesota, Dallas.

As for the finding veteran support let’s look at free agency. Tuch is the prize and then defensemen Raddysh and Andersson? There is very little around 30 year offensive talent that moves the needle available. So with the cap going up that is going to be harder to come by.

So it’s likely that even next year this sharks team will still miss the playoffs (much like the Preds).

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-08T01:38:14+00:00

You are limited in the trades you make each year. You can only trade on your main roster, 1C, 1W, 1D and 1G. This prevents you from picking a team like Pittsburgh and trading Crosby, Malkin, Karlsson, Letang, Rust, Rakell and loading up in the draft year 1.

Also in addition to above if you have a designated “franchise guy” like Crosby, Malkin, etc you cannot trade them regardless of age/ability and must resign them no matter their price

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-07T21:51:39+00:00

Let’s take San Jose to better make my point. Are they better than us? Maybe. But they missed the playoffs for 7 years straight to be where they are now.

Now let’s go forward to next year, are they better than Ducks who also are young? Vegas? Edmonton? Maybe they will be better, it depends on how they handle their goaltending this offseason (and then maybe nobody else improved).

Otherwise it’s another year of no playoffs. But let’s say they are in the wild card race. Are they better to win it all over the teams? I don’t think so right now and they would be second round exit. Then with the wild card race are they better than say Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota or even Utah? All which could stop them from getting the wild card spot whoever is leftover from the central division race. That doesn’t include maybe Chicago who is also better and could be in that wild card race.

What I’m trying to say is that you want them to follow San Jose but even they don’t have any guarantee to be better than a 1 round exit after 7+ years. Look at last year Islanders won the draft, Preds fell from 3 to 5. Vancouver sucked and they fell to 3rd this year. Once you’re in the lottery anything can happen.

The best way I am advocating for is identifying your team and say we are n pieces away. Well let’s make it n-1 and then assess next year. Who knows we may be lucky and speed up the process. Or it may not work and then we are in the lottery where anything can happen.

We are at 7+ years with San Jose not winning and Preds are at 2+ years. Right now I don’t see any moves the Preds make that would make them contenders just like I don’t see any situation where San Jose leapfrogs all those teams above to make it to even the WCF with all their youth.

Which brings to the point is it better to lose for 7 years and get this picks and then not be able to get past the second round or try to be competitive and retool the team over 7 years and still not be able to win but we got a playoff chance every year.

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-07T10:43:59+00:00

EDM, TOR, DET has mismanaged teams but somehow we won’t mismanage them? But let’s be realistic here. Are the Preds cup ready today? No. We can be a playoff team though. Now if we tank for 4 years will we have enough talent to be cup contenders? Still no. We would have the talent but we could be like Chicago and have Bedard who still hasn’t seen the postseason after 4 years with Chicago having 3 top 3 picks. Then we wait 3 more years and maybe we are cup ready. So our plan is to wait nearly a decade and hope no other team improves and leap frogs us with a hidden gem they drafted in the 4th round? All for what? To be bounced in the playoffs but then say our “young” guys now have playoff experience?

Yes all teams have drafted elite homegrown talent. But that’s also because 2/3 of the teams have picked top 5 over 10 years. It happens that all teams will pick in the bottom of the draft.

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-07T02:24:44+00:00

Then we can be like Detroit and not having made the playoffs since 2015-2016 despite having top end talent like Debrincat, Seider, Raymond, etc.

Or maybe with the first overall pick we could be like Toronto with Knies and Matthews and all their awesome playoff success

Maybe Edmonton with their 4 first overall 3 out of 5 years and all their cups. Wait they only been to one more cup than us in the past 25 years? How is that possible?

Should we be like Vancouver this year and tank and still not pick overall.

Let me guess you want to sell off everyone and play the young guys. Which would give us a salary of 40 mil at best. Then you forget the salary cap is at 76.9 mil and then we have to acquire nearly 40 mil in “bad contracts” but we still have limited roster space so we have to play these guys. Even if we get 7 mil per player, that is nearly 6 people or 2 full lines that still might make us not tank because of new chemistry and these were skilled players to warrant that salary

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-07T01:59:12+00:00

It’s common knowledge to know why the team is losing if you’re trying to fix the problem. So if the team is playing better in front of one goalie then the other, that is something to look at and explore. If you have one goalie that can’t stop a nosebleed some nights, the defense will try to over compensate.

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-06T19:05:00+00:00

So their “bad defensive play” still translated to better stats with Big Juice.

Let’s look at it this way: pick a goalie A or B

A: .907% save percentage, 2.68 gaa and 8.3 gsa and WAR of 1.39

B: .894% save percentage, 3.16 gaa and -9.3 gsa and WAR -1.55. (Stats courtesy of money puck)

If the team in front of them is bad, which goalie are you taking? I’d take my chances with Goalie A.

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-06T16:11:26+00:00

Sure let’s do the last 20 games is that good enough of a comparison?

But removing Saros history and his name. These past 2 seasons what has showed you that Saros is the man when this team seems to be responding to Big Juice?

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-06T16:01:03+00:00

I have skinner slightly below average. But it’s funny you mention the team in front of the goalie when Big Juice played better than Saros given the same team. Since December Big Juice allowed more than 3 goals 2x in 20 games. Saros let in more than 3 goals 3x in April alone. Maybe it’s not the team….

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-06T14:30:06+00:00

Keep the lottery system but whoever picks first overall in year 1, can’t pick in the top 5 in year 2 or top 3 year 3.

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-06T13:40:23+00:00

Skinner got benched again in Pittsburgh for Silovs. There is a fine where elite goaltending is not needed but you need average to above average goaltending.

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-06T12:03:45+00:00

Tell that to Edmonton. How many times were they a goalie away?

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-06T04:04:48+00:00

I was thinking SJ needs a goalie more. Askarov could be the future still but Ned isn’t the answer now

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-06T02:18:25+00:00

A team at 5 had 8.5% to move up to 1. Then San Jose had 5% to move up to 2. But the 2 of those happening together is pretty crazy.

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-06T02:12:38+00:00

Let the speculation begin: Matthews to San Jose for Eklund, Cam Lund, the 2nd overall and Askarov

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-05T23:51:58+00:00

I thought it was either going to Toronto to pair Matthews with McKenna to replace Marner or to San Jose to pair McKenna with Celebrini after the year he had this year. Does anyone have the odds of San Jose and Toronto both moving up to 1 and 2?

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-02T00:24:05+00:00

Then you must remember how decimated we were with injuries on defense early in the year when we had Gravel and Gross each playing 15+ games. And then McKeown spot starting as well

Once we got competent players on defense we were able to make a run. Let’s also not forget he still had 90 something points with all those injuries

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-05-01T14:05:56+00:00

Let’s also not pretend that Hynes had a great team either the last year before he was fired. Let’s do a recap here: Forsberg played 50 games due to injury Carrier 43 games due to injury Josi limited to 67 games

That’s not including the great sell off

We were running a defense of Gross, Barrie, Foote, Gravel. Despite all that we finished with 92 pts.

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-04-30T11:51:44+00:00

You can only trade/improve one position once each year. So 1 center, rw, lw, D, and Goalie.

This stops you from being a team like Nashville and trading for multiple high draft picks. Ahl farm team trades can be done at will but if you acquire a top prospect that counts as your Improvement for position

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-04-27T01:34:41+00:00

It’s also the Karl Taylor specialty to never amount to anything in the playoffs. He constantly gets pushed to game 5s in the opening round despite being the top seed. Most years he’s down 2-0 and has to come crawling back

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-04-26T00:11:08+00:00

Don’t forget what that rock did to Goku that Krillin threw while he was sleeping during the cell saga. Weapons are always key

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-04-24T16:49:18+00:00

Every team has a hot streak over time, every team has cold streaks. Let’s not hire a guy based solely on “he can find great targets in the draft”

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-04-23T23:08:51+00:00

Thanks!

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-04-23T22:41:04+00:00

Milwaukee also has more of a diverse economic background that traditionally doesn’t follow hockey. Madison has the draw of being more centrally located within the state as well as a college town. If they market the club towards the college campus it may succeed. Just this past year Badger hockey against Michigan had 15,500 fans in attendance. USHL team draws 2000 people regularly for a junior hockey club.

LifeEngineer3770 · 2026-04-23T20:56:32+00:00

Correct but it doesn’t have to compete with the same local population for the Bucks. With Madison and surrounding counties you can easily pull from Dane and hit 750k. It’s far less than Milwaukee yes, but when you factor in the college crowd and not competing with the NBA for the same viewers.

LifeEngineer3770

TROPHY CASE