With just two days left in the NHL preseason, the Nashville Predators still have several decisions to make when it comes to the 23-man active roster for the regular season. Let’s take a look at the roster, who is a lock to make the team and who has work to do. As of Thursday morning, here is the training camp roster.
Locks to Make The Roster
| Forwards (10/16) | Defensemen (6/8) | Goaltender (2/2) |
| Cody Glass | Roman Josi | Juuse Saros |
| Filip Forsberg | Luke Schenn | Kevin Lankinen |
| Colton Sissons | Tyson Barrie | |
| Sam Fagemo | Ryan McDonaugh | |
| Yakov Trenin | Alex Carrier | |
| Gustav Nyquist | Dante Fabbro | |
| Denis Gurianov | ||
| Tommy Novak | ||
| Ryan O’Reilly | ||
| Nolan Burke (IR) |
Most of these names shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. As you can already tell, with both goaltenders being locks and six of eight defensemen are considered “locks”, the forward group is where the most competition will be. Sam Fagemo will likely be on the active roster on opening night, mostly due to waiver claim rules, and Nolan Burke will start the season on injured reserve and won’t count against the 23 man roster limit.
Waiver-Exempt Players
| Forwards (3/16) | Defensemen (1/8) |
| Philip Tomasino | Marc Del Gaizo |
| Juuso Parssinen | |
| Luke Evangelista |
There are some tough decisions looming for General Manager Barry Trotz and Head Coach Andrew Brunette. I would say personally that all four should be considered near-locks for the roster, but with the competition at the forward spot, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of these guys gets sent down. These players are on their entry-level contracts and are still exempt from waivers, so there’s no danger of the players being claimed elsewhere.
Waiver Possibilities
| Forwards (3/16) | Defensemen (1/8) |
| Michael McCarron | Jeremy Lauzon |
| Kiefer Sherwood | |
| Cole Smith |
These are all familiar names to Nashville fans. Michael McCarron is back playing in the NHL, and while he has a ton of NHL experience, his role as a hard-hitting checking-line player may not be necessary with the new roster makeup. He’s excelled in Milwaukee in the past, and has yet to be claimed when being sent down, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go down.
Kiefer Sherwood is an incredibly fun player that stepped up in a big way last year with all of the injuries on the team. Still, it’s difficult to imagine that he makes the roster, especially over some of the new acquisitions at forward. Cole Smith, on the other hand, is a guy that the team has loved in the past – despite his reputation among fans, Smith has been a strong 3rd line player, where he has shined on penalty kill duty. He’s a prime candidate to send to Milwaukee, but Cole Smith seems to have something in his favor, so don’t be suprised to see him make the 23 man roster.
Jeremy Lauzon is an interesting case. Lauzon is in the second year of his four-year, $2 million AAV contract, but has been largely unimpressive in his time with Nashville. Not only would sending Lauzon down help with the salary cap, but it would give a strong young player like Del Gaizo to develop.
Opening Night Roster Prediction
| Forwards (13/23) | Defensemen (8/23) | Goaltenders (2/23) |
| Ryan O’Reilly1 | Roman Josi1 | Juuse Saros1 |
| Gustav Nyquist1 | Ryan McDonaugh1 | Kevin Lankinen1 |
| Filip Forsberg1 | Tyson Barrie1 | |
| Cody Glass1 | Luke Schenn1 | |
| Yakov Trenin | Alex Carrier1 | |
| Philip Tomasino1 | Dante Fabbro | |
| Juuso Parssinen1 | Marc Del Gaizo | Waivers (2) |
| Tommy Novak1 | Jeremy Lauzon1 | F Michael McCarron |
| Luke Evangelista1 | F Kiefer Sherwood1 | |
| Sam Fagemo1 | ||
| Colton Sissons1 | Injured Reserve (1) | |
| Denis Gurianov1 | F Nolan Burke | |
| Cole Smith |
There aren’t a lot of surprises here – Despite what I’ve said about Cole Smith and Jeremy Lauzon, I still think they make the roster. Kiefer Sherwood and Michael McCarron are no strangers to playing in gold in the NHL, but these are guys that are big adds for Milwaukee (if they make it through waivers), and Luke Evangelista, Phil Tomasino and Juuso Parssinen are just too good to send to Milwaukee – even though they are waiver exempt. With Burke on injured reserve, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the roster look like this on opening night in Tampa Bay.