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Revisiting those pre-season predictions for the Nashville Predators

By Dirk Hoag
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The NHL regular season is a long 82-game grind, and it's easy to see the latest day-to-day results as being indicative of a player's total contribution. Right now, the team is riding Sergei Kostitsyn's hot goal-scoring touch, which has helped Mike Fisher pile up a healthy number of assists of late. It's helpful on occasion to set those performances in proportion to the overall campaign, however.

Just before Opening Night, I took a stab at how the major offensive contributors on the Preds would fare this season.

So how are those predictions turning out so far? Let's take a look...

The table below shows the predictions I made back in October on the left, with the season-long totals each Predator is currently on pace for.

Prediction On Pace For
Player GP G A Pts PIM Shots GP G A Pts PIM Shots Comment
Patric Hornqvist 80 28 27 55 50 280 80 22 13 35 45 216 Very disappointing so far, shots are down ~30% from pace of last two seasons.
Martin Erat 70 18 37 55 40 125 67 19 35 54 22 101 Same old Marty. Inspiring sometimes, invisible at others.
Sergei Kostitsyn 82 18 35 53 30 120 71 19 22 41 37 76 Does his recent hot streak give hope for the 2nd half?
Colin Wilson 82 24 26 50 30 160 76 15 28 43 28 127 A strong push to the playoffs could earn him millions.
Shea Weber 82 14 31 45 70 240 75 17 43 60 48 233 Could set a new franchise scoring record for defensemen (55 by Timonen in 2006-7).
David Legwand 75 18 27 45 30 160 75 22 28 50 22 142 Enjoying his best season since Paul Kariya rode alongside.
Ryan Suter 82 5 37 42 60 130 82 9 37 47 48 162 He picked a good time to challenge his career-best numbers.
Mike Fisher 75 17 23 40 70 170 67 15 28 43 28 142 So far, so good.
Jonathon Blum 82 9 24 33 50 110 62 6 7 13 11 47 When will he get back to the NHL, and will it still be with Nashville?
Cal O`Reilly 65 9 24 33 10 70 48 4 7 11 7 24 Waived by both the Preds and Coyotes already.
Niclas Bergfors 82 17 14 31 8 160 11 1 1 2 2 11 This year's Kostitsyn? More like this year's Svatos. Woof.

Overall? The O'Reilly and Bergfors flameouts were a letdown, but most of the rest are in the ballpark. Obviously Jordin Tootoo has been a revelation, as I didn't even both including him as a fantasy hockey prospect.

What are your thoughts on the performance of some of the individual Preds to this point? Who has impressed, and who has been a disappointment?