Preds Training Camp 2021: Five Storylines to Watch

Autumn has officially arrived - and so has Predators hockey.
The Tennessee humidity was gone as players and staff awoke in the Music City on Wednesday morning, and as the Preds opened Training Camp to truly signify the start of the 2021-22 journey, that sense of renewed excitement was in the atmosphere, too. We may be three weeks away from Opening Night in Nashville, but the work is already well underway.
Player physicals and team meetings were on the docket Wednesday, which will be followed by on-ice testing Thursday, and then the first on-ice practice of camp comes for
all three groups of participants on Friday at Centennial Sportsplex
.

For Predators General Manager David Poile, Head Coach John Hynes and the rest of their respective staffs, the next 22 days will provide answers to the questions all the higher-ups undoubtedly have regarding their roster. As Poile stated earlier in September, he's got an idea as to who will dress on Oct. 14 when the Preds host the Seattle Kraken at Bridgestone Arena, but he's also been at this long enough to know at least one of his plans will change between now and then.
"It's just - it's different every year," Poile said of Training Camp. "I can't exactly describe it, but as I said, some years you feel like you get the chance to win the Stanley Cup, some years you're not sure you're going to make the playoffs. You're always worried about certain players and what they can do or not do, but I think we have so many guys that have a lot of potential, and that's exciting. But I guarantee you that there's going to be somebody that's going to make our team that we maybe even haven't talked about, and I guarantee you there's somebody that's going to disappoint that we have talked about. So, that's just the way it is, and that's why I've got a great job. Every day is exciting, every day is new and different and you just don't know what it's going to bring, but we don't have too much longer to wait to start finding out."
That's the fascination with Training Camp - there's no telling exactly what six preseason games and a slew of practices in between will bring, but the resolutions will come soon enough.
With that in mind, here are five storylines to watch for during Preds Training Camp and beyond:

Life After Pekka Rinne:

Poile explained it best recently when asked for his viewpoint on Nashville's transition in net from the recently-retired Pekka Rinne to the next No. 1 in Juuse Saros.
"We weren't sure whether Pekka Rinne was going to retire or play another year, and he ended up retiring, and that's not good news," Poile said. "But the good news was that Juuse Saros played lights out in the second half of the season."
The Preds are taking the bad with the good in this situation, and all eyes will be on Saros as he becomes Nashville's true starter without Rinne in the picture for the first time in over a decade. Saros, who signed a four-year, $20 million deal with the Preds over the summer, exuded confidence when he spoke last month of the challenges ahead without his mentor around any longer.
There's no doubt Saros is ready - he almost single handedly brought the Predators into the playoffs last spring - but he's never been asked to be "the guy" for a full 82-game season - until now.
"There's still some hurdles to overcome, but now, if there was ever going to be… the right time [for Saros to take over], it had to be last year in terms of Pekka passing the torch, so to speak, with 'Juice,'" Poile said. "[With Saros] playing the bulk of the games, playing in the playoffs, and the new contract, it feels like everything is set in place for him to be successful."
The Predators signed veteran goaltender David Rittich to a one-year deal in July to serve as Saros's backup, and Connor Ingram is expected to take the starting job in Milwaukee as a third option.

Who Takes Over for Long-Time Preds Now Playing Elsewhere?

The summer of 2021 brought more change than the Predators had experienced in recent memory, including the departure of a number of key contributors.
In addition to Rinne's retirement, Poile traded defenseman Ryan Ellis to Philadelphia and forward Viktor Arvidsson to Los Angeles in separate deals, and forward Calle Jarnkrok was claimed by Seattle in the Expansion Draft. Those names carried plenty of respect in Nashville, but as Poile has stated, the time had come to make some adjustments.
The Predators are now younger, but those deals will provide opportunities for others to make their first true impacts at the NHL level.
Nashville acquired forward Cody Glass, the sixth-overall selection in the 2017 NHL Draft - from Vegas following the Ellis deal, and the Preds believe the 22-year-old centerman has plenty of potential in his game to become a full-time member of their roster.
Additionally, the team remains high on young forwards Philip Tomasino and Eeli Tolvanen, the latter of whom showed what he could do at the NHL level with 11 goals and 22 points last season. Tomasino, who scored two goals in three games for the Preds during the NHL Prospect Showcase over the past few days, and Tolvanen are prime candidates to earn larger roles this season.
"[Tolvanen] has just got to find a way to play all the games; he's got to put himself in a position where the coaches can trust him," Poile said. "He's got to be more productive at 5-on-5, on the power play, and he certainly seems to be, and should be, a lock to play on one of our two power plays. He's got an unbelievable shot, it seems like he scores with very little room that he's given, and he should be a goal scorer. We're going to need him to be productive, because if you're picking some negatives with the Predators right now, I would say one of the things is where are we getting our scoring? Where are we getting our secondary scoring? So, it's a huge opportunity for Tolvy."

What Does the D-Corps Look Like, Including Spots for Fabbro, Myers?

The departure of Ellis leaves a hole, but the Predators have plenty of options to fill it.
Heading into Training Camp, Nashville has 10 defensemen - Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm, Dante Fabbro, Alexandre Carrier, Matt Benning, Mark Borowiecki, Ben Harpur, Jeremy Davies, David Farrance and Frederic Allard - who all saw NHL action with the team last season returning once more. Add Philippe Myers, who was acquired from Philadelphia in the Ellis deal, into the equation, and there is certainly no lack of competition on the backend for those six spots in the lineup come Opening Night.
"On defense, younger players like Alex Carrier, for example, came in, played really well and actually played on the top pairing with Roman Josi, which allowed us to make a huge decision in trading a veteran like Ryan Ellis," Poile said. "We're certainly believing that Fabbro was going to come back after somewhat of an off-season last year, but he looks really good in some of the skates that I've seen the players have before training camp, and I think he's going to rebound this year. We made a big trade with Philadelphia to get a 6-foot-4 defenseman in Philippe Meyers, and I'm not sure what the defense pairings are, but if it ends up Josi and Carrier, for example, it could be [Ekholm] and Phil Myers, two tall, big trees that could be really a shutdown type of a pair. So, there's lots of different things to be excited about."

Who Makes Up the Forward Group and Who Plays with Who?

Arvidsson and Jarnkrok's spots will need to be filled in the forward corps, and in addition to players like Glass, Tolvanen and Tomasino, others could find themselves skating with the likes of Filip Forsberg, Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansen and Mikael Granlund, four names who will presumably find their way into Nashville's top six up front.
Luke Kunin, Nick Cousins and Rocco Grimaldi are all options, too, especially Kunin who was one of Nashville's best players down the stretch and into the playoffs last season.
The 'Herd Line' is back for the Preds, a physical unit that often started games for the team and consisted of some combination of Colton Sissons, Tanner Jeannot, Yakov Trenin and Mathieu Olivier last season. Could one of those names find their way onto another trio?
Forwards like Rem Pitlick, Matt Luff and Cole Smith also figure to make things interesting, and each of those players could make a case for themselves in the weeks ahead.
"Can Tolvanen come back and play regular minutes?" Poile asked. "Can he score like he did on the power play? Can he do that 5-on-5 this year? Can Luke Kunin have the second half [as he became] the kind of player we traded for last year? Can he take off? Cody Glass, another young player that we [acquired], can he be an offensive center for us for a team that's going to need some goals? Phil Tomasino, our first pick from a couple years ago that we really liked and had a good year down in the AHL last year at 19, can he make our team? So, lots to be excited about, but lots of unproven players [at forward], so we'll see what happens."

How Will Hynes Take Advantage of First True Training Camp in Nashville?

He had an abbreviated camp of sorts in July of 2020, and then another last January to prepare for a 56-game season in the midst of a pandemic, but for the first time since joining the Preds as a new decade began, John Hynes is set to oversee his first real training camp as head coach of the Predators.
For the first time since 2019, preseason games are on the schedule, and a sense of normalcy - at least on the ice - has returned in many respects. The last time the NHL held a "normal" training camp, Hynes was in New Jersey, unaware of the changes that would come a few months later.
Now, after guiding a turnaround that was just starting to begin in March of 2020 and another late-season surge that got the Preds into the playoffs last spring, Hynes can truly start from scratch in a way and put his own stamp on this team from the very start of an 82-game campaign.
Yes, the factors that will eventually determine this version of the franchise's fate are plentiful, but don't underestimate a coach's ability to execute a plan at the outset.
"I'm really excited to get back with our guys," Hynes said earlier in September. "We had a tremendous second half of last year, and we feel like we have lots of really good things to be able to build off of from last year. Training camps can be really important to get off to a good start, really get to our identity and get to know some of the newer players better and where everybody fits, and that's exciting. It's been a good summer. We've been able to really look at our team, and obviously there's been some changes to our team, but I think coming back in, everyone's focused and excited to try to get off to a really good start in training camp."