Inside the NHL: Nashville's off-key foray into free agency has been a disaster

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The Nashville Predators won the summer, but they are the NHL's biggest losers of the fall.

As this corner has said many times before: You cannot build your team through free agency.

You can only augment it that way.

This was supposed to be one of the biggest weekends in Nashville franchise history, with original general manager David Poile and longtime captain Shea Weber being feted in Toronto and earning induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday.

Instead, the backdrop to that great moment is the stunning collapse of the franchise to a 4-9-1 start and 32nd place in the NHL's overall standings entering Saturday's home game against Utah.

Predators head coach Andrew Brunette frets during the third period of Thursday's 6-2 loss to the Panthers, in Sunrise, Fla.

That 2017 trip to the Stanley Cup final seems a lot more than 7 1/2 years ago.

Whereas Winnipeg's 13-1 record rates as one of the best feel-good stories of the season thus far, the off-key melody out of the Music City is the biggest shocker.

Get this: The Predators entered Saturday 17 points behind the Jets for the lead in the Central Division.

Colorado and Edmonton have been disappointments, but not like this.

Predators head coach Andrew Brunette frets during the third period of Thursday's 6-2 loss to the Panthers, in Sunrise, Fla.

The Predators spent $108.5 million to sign three free agents in Steven Stamkos (from Tampa Bay), Jonathan Marchessault (Vegas) and Brady Skjei (Carolina), and it has been a complete disaster.

They are tied for 31st in the league in offense.

Through 14 games, Stamkos has four goals, and Marchessault has two, and they are carrying ratings of minus-11 and minus-10, respectively.

Skjei has two goals, is minus-7 and is bringing down captain Roman Josi, who is already minus-12.

The Preds gave Skjei seven years and $49 million.

After Monday's 3-0 loss to Los Angeles, GM Barry Trotz made league-wide headlines during his regular appearance on a Nashville radio station when he said, "If we dont get it going, then Im going to start our rebuild plan.

A bit of a bizarre statement to make when you've just gone head-first into free agency.

Trotz walked it back some Wednesday in Washington with NHL.com , saying he was only referring to pondering callups of former first-round picks Fedor Svechkov and Joakim Kemell from Milwaukee.

"Everybodys thinking Im blowing it up, Trotz said.

No, its more that maybe we need a Svechkov or a Kemell or one those guys.

Maybe they come in and we start looking at some of those guys and giving them some experience and start that retool or rebuild or whatever (word) we say.

You wonder at some point if coach Andrew Brunette is in trouble here.

The word is that is not the case right now, but this simply can't continue.

And every coach in the league that's in trouble might raise the temptation for someone to take the chance on bringing back deposed Chicago and Florida coach Joel Quenneville.

What have been the issues with this club? "I just think we dont have enough chemistry on all our lines, Trotz said.

Our penalty kill has been good (second in the NHL).

Power play, I would say, has been acceptable (13th).

Our face-offs are good (fifth).

Our 5-on-5 play overall has improved defensively since the start of the year.

But we havent scored a lot of goals.

This was a 99-point team last year, but it also started that season 5-10-0, so things are far from over.

But the fast starts in Winnipeg and Minnesota have really added to the urgency.

"Absolutely, we need results, said Nashville center Ryan OReilly, the former Sabre and Conn Smythe Trophy winner with St.

Louis.

"This league's so tight.

We need results, and we need them now.

We have to stay with it.

...

We need that desperation, but we've got to keep working.

It's not everyone go on their own, trying to go rogue.

It's sticking together, relying on each other to get us out of this." Rangers had it coming The word around Madison Square Garden on Thursday was that the New York Rangers had a clunker coming.

Even with an 8-2-1 record, the offense wasn't in the top 10 of the league, top-line center Mika Zibanejad was grumbling about seeing his minutes cut and the team was living off the goaltending of Igor Shesterkin.

You want balance? There were 15 players on the scoresheet for Buffalo, with six different goal scorers.

It was just the second time in franchise history all 12 forwards had at least one point.

When Shesterkin had a rare off night, starting with his five-hole fumble of Rasmus Dahlin's routine wrist shot just 26 seconds into the game, his team crumbled around him.

The Sabres boat-raced the Rangers into the Hudson River with a four-goal second period that keyed a 6-1 rout.

Shesterkin, who entered the game with a .933 save percentage, left it at .919 after giving up five goals on 12 shots.

"Its been building toward this, definitely, veteran forward Chris Kreider told the New York Post after the game.

I dont think our process has been great.

We havent been good defensively, and we havent been good at the things that win hockey games." The Rangers were on a 14-game point streak against the Sabres (11-0-3) until last November, but have now lost two of the last three meetings.

Both were blowout losses in the Garden, a 5-1 defeat on Nov.

27, 2023, and Thursday's no-show.

The teams meet in Buffalo on Dec.

11 and Feb.

22.

Return of Reimer? Keep an eye on Anaheim's goaltending situation.

Veteran John Gibson, who has yet to play this season after an appendectomy, took part in the Ducks' morning skate Friday prior to their home loss against Minnesota, and could be ready to rejoin Lukas Dostal in the crease.

"Its, basically, just a kick in the butt," Buffalo Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson said.

"I mean, if you asked me before I got scratched, I would have told you that I needed to be better anyways.

So, its not like it was a secret beforehand." That means veteran James Reimer, acquired from the Sabres on waivers in early October, could go back on waivers.

Buffalo undoubtedly has interest in reclaiming Reimer, and suddenly need help in Rochester after Felix Sandstrom suffered an upper-body injury in a bizarre incident Friday night.

It is possible the Sabres could claim Reimer to back up Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and give Devon Levi regular time in Rochester with Michael Houser.

Sandstrom was flat-out charged and pushed into the net by Hartford forward Ben Harpur late in Rochester's 6-3 win in Blue Cross Arena, and video of the incident appeared to make it look blatant and premeditated.

There's history there from last November in a game between Hartford and Lehigh Valley: Sandstrom accidentally tripped Harpur, who was going to the net, and sent Harpur flying into the boards.

Harpur suffered a torn pectoral muscle and his season was over after seven games.

In the short term, the Amerks were searching for another goalie to back up Houser in Saturday's game at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Rochester entered that game second in the AHL North at 7-3 and has home games Wednesday and Saturday against first-place Laval (9-1).

Former Flyers goaltender Felix Sandstrom was charged into by Ben Harpur tonight.

Harpur was given a 5 minute major and game misconduct for this intent-to-injure.

pic.twitter.com/tD7MLLS7wh Media Matters Kudos to two giants of the written word in hockey circles.

Scott Burnside (Toronto Sun, ESPN, The Athletic, Daily Faceoff) is being honored this weekend by the Hall of Fame with the annual Elmer Ferguson Award for career excellence , while 2001 Ferguson winner Eric Duhatschek announced his retirement Thursday after a 46-year career spent mostly in Canada and wrapping up with The Athletic.

Burnside was a former president of the Professional Hockey Writers Associatio,n and Duhatschek spent a 15-year term as a member of the selection committee of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

One of the most upbeat folks you will ever meet in a press box, Burnside's fascinating career initially took off with eight years as a newswriter at the Sun.

In that time, Burnside and colleague Al Cairns covered a series of rapes and murders in Southern Ontario that became one of the most followed crimes in that region's history and got plenty of play in the Buffalo media, as well.

Somewhere out there, the likes of names such as Thomas Vanek, Maxim Afinogenov and Craig Rivet had to be smirking and nodding their heads in approval at the healthy scratches.

The alums remember.

Ruff knows how to jar his dressing room in a way Don Granato either didn't or simply refused to do.

And it matters.

They penned a book "Deadly Innocence: The True Story of Paul Bernardo, Karla Homolka, and the Schoolgirl Murders," detailing the lives of newlyweds and sexual predators Bernardo and Homolka.

Not the normal path to moving on to be a Hall of Fame sportswriter.

Duhatschek is best remembered for his time covering the Calgary Flames for the Calgary Herald, becoming one of the most influential media figures in Western Canada.

He was a longtime columnist for the Hockey News and intermission guest on "Hockey Night in Canada".

The Buffalo News has earned the Ferguson award twice, with Dick Johnston being named in 1986 and Jim Kelley taking the honor in 2001.

Around the boards Winnipeg joined the 2007-08 Ottawa Senators as the only teams to open a season 13-1 and hosted Dallas on Saturday afternoon.

After that game, the Jets have a massive four-game stretch that opens Tuesday in Madison Square Garden against the Rangers.

Then comes a game Thursday in Tampa, followed by a rare home-and-home series against a team from the opposite conference against defending Stanley Cup champion Florida.

The teams meet Saturday in Sunrise and Nov.

19 in Winnipeg, and you can bet both sides will be taking good notes just in case they meet again come June in a Cup final.

Just can't get over Vegas' home-road splits.

The Golden Knights are 8-0-0 in T-Mobile Arena and have outscored opponents 43-19 by averaging more than five goals per game and connecting on 35% of their power play chances.

On the road? They're 1-3-2 after Friday's overtime loss in Seattle.

They're getting outscored 24-18, but the power play is still scoring at 29%.

The issue is a penalty kill that's 29th in the NHL at just 70%.

Thursday night in San Jose, No.

1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini scored twice on Minnesota veteran Marc-Andre Fleury.

That's an 18-year-old who is the only player in the league born in 2006 scoring on a 39-year-old who is the only born-in-1984 player still active.

Fleury turns 40 on Nov.

28.

Rochester's win over Hartford was the 2,500th in Amerks history, allowing the club to join Hershey as the only ones to reach that milestone in the AHL's 89-year history.

The only NHL teams with 2,500-plus wins are the Original Six: Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Detroit, the New York Rangers and Chicago.

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