The 2025-26 Nashville Predators may be the most confounding team in hockey — and they’re also the most honest.
On Jan. 10, they were shut out at home by the Chicago Blackhawks. They outshot Chicago 36–21, but they looked disconnected. Sloppy. Flat. Drew Commesso earned his first NHL shutout, and Nashville never truly felt like it was in the game.
Less than a week later, Ryan O’Reilly detonated for a hat trick and an assist in a 7–3 win over Colorado, handing the Avalanche their first regulation home loss of the season.
That’s the Predators in a nutshell. Extremes. Whiplash. A team capable of looking lifeless one night and terrifying the next.
And yet, the results are undeniable.
Since Dec. 1, Nashville is 15–8. Those wins aren’t hollow, either. They’ve beaten Colorado twice. Edmonton. Florida. Minnesota. Toronto. Vegas. Washington. The Islanders. This isn’t a soft stretch padded by lottery teams. This is a résumé.
The Predators sit one point behind San Jose for the second Wild Card in a Western Conference where nearly everyone is bunched together. Every night feels like a four-point swing. Every win matters. And every loss lingers.
And that’s why the “just sell and rebuild” crowd is going to keep feeling frustrated.
The reality is this: as long as Nashville is a bubble team, Barry Trotz is not going to torch the roster. He’s not going to flip veterans for futures while the standings say “playoff race.” He probably won’t buy, either. But he won’t sell. And honestly? That’s probably the correct approach.
This roster wasn’t built for a teardown. It’s built to compete now and transition forward. The Predators have young pillars in place, a prospect pipeline worth protecting, and veterans who still drive wins. You can’t credibly walk into that locker room, look Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly, and Juuse Saros in the eye, and say, “We’re done trying this year,” while you’re beating contenders.
Especially when your captain is doing this.
Over the last three games — all Predators wins over playoff-caliber teams — Josi has been everywhere: three goals on eight shots, five assists and a plus-6 rating. That’s a leader dragging his group forward.
Josi isn’t playing like someone wasting a season. He’s playing like someone who believes this team can matter. And when your captain looks like that, the idea of selling becomes more than a strategy choice — it becomes a cultural rupture.
Fans dreaming of a clean rebuild want clarity. They want direction. They want a timeline. But this season isn’t about comfort. It’s about ambiguity.
The Predators are good enough to beat anyone. Inconsistent enough to lose to anyone. Dangerous enough to stay in the race. Flawed enough to leave you wanting more.
That’s not a team built for tanking. That’s a team stuck in the middle — and sometimes, the middle is where growth actually happens.
If Nashville continues on this trajectory, the deadline will be quiet. No fireworks. No dramatic pivot. Just minor tweaks, if anything. Trotz will protect flexibility. He’ll keep the door open. He’ll let this group decide what it is.
And Predators fans may have to accept a truth that feels unsatisfying but real:
This season isn’t about blowing it up. It’s about seeing if this group — messy, streaky, maddening, talented — can become something more.
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