Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on the FAN Hockey Show when asked about the Nashville Predators, Barry Trotz’s comments, and their five-on-five issues.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Matt Marchese: “Uh, well, I’ll tell you this, the bar in Nashville right now is
pretty low. Just win a game, it feels like. And Barry Trotz the other day, said, ‘if we don’t get it going, then I’m going to start our rebuild plan.’
So, it’s not something I expected to hear this early on in the season. Yet, here we are. How much do you think he’s working the phones right now, and if this continues, what types of players are available? Because, as (Mike Futa) pointed out yesterday in our group chat, they don’t hand out no moves and no trades very often, so there are a lot of guys that could potentially be available if this thing continues to go south.”
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Friedman: “I don’t know if we’re exactly quite there yet. You know, number one, I think he’s trying to motivate his team. I don’t think there’s any question about that. I think he’s trying to light a fire under his group.
Number two, he’s definitely looking for a center. He said that before. It’s not new news. He really wants to find the center out there, but top-six centers are really hard to find. Top-six centers and and top stud D. Those are really hard to find. There’s a reason people don’t give them up, because you’re always looking for them and they’re hard to get.
I think that what, when Trotz was talking about starting his rebuild plan, I think he was talking more about, you know, bringing in some younger players, especially ones that are in Milwaukee. They have some decent looking prospects there, and maybe giving them a shot.
…
But, you know, I just think that, it sort of wasn’t, when he when he was talking about rebuild. I don’t think he was talking about tearing this Nashville team down in the studs. I don’t think you, you do that so quickly after what they did last summer. I think honestly, Matty, it was more about some of their kids who they hold would wait a bit longer, might get their chances of it earlier.”
Marchese: “Well, I mean night, and it’s just, it’s one of those games where they’re in it. And kudos to you, Logan Thompson, was really good last night. Your Team Canada dark horse. I’m starting to buy into what you’re selling here.
But it was, it really was a good hockey game. It’s just that, it feels like Nashville is just missing something. And five-on-five they’re struggling. Their power plays been much better. They’re actually, they have, you know, I think they’re in the top five in power play goals this season, but it’s five on five that’s their biggest concern right now.
When you look at this team and you say, ‘Okay, I see the talent, I, maybe, I think they can come through all this. How do you fix five-on-five. Like that, that, to me, is a roster construction issue at this point.”
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Friedman: “I think it is a roster construction issue at this point. And like I said, they’ve got a hole at the number two center position. They’ve tried a bunch of different guys there. They’ve tried (Tommy) Novak there. They tried (Steven) Stamkos there once. They tried (Colton) Sissons there.
And now both know both Novak and Sissons are hurt, and we’ll see what kind of lineup they have in Florida. That 2C problem is, is a big one.”
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