The goalie position on the Nashville Predators roster will be paid roughly 7.75 million regardless of who is playing both this year and next. Now that players are under contract, the team needs to win as many games as possible.
It's similar to the Penguins last year with Fleury and Murray as Murray earned the right to remain the starter in the playoffs. And Murray is pushing Fleury again this season.
If Rinne continues to decline, Saros will start pushing him. In the bold predictions thread, I thought that Nashville would make the playoffs, but Rinne would not be the starting goalie. Still believe that to be the case.
Goalie isn't the only issue for this team though.
The defensive pairings need adjustment. Josi and Ellis play well together offensively and can be good defensively, but tend to get pushed around against bigger teams.
The forwards are too often tripping over each other, passing into a worse shooting position or making too many weak passes that result in turnovers. Even when they have large amounts of zone time, they often don't get a lot of traffic.
They remind me at times of an old western where the good guys get surrounded by bad guys that are continually circling around and shooting. That's the Preds. They do not score too many dirty goals like that last goal the Kings scored last night. They are feast or famine on the great shot or a shot from a great cross ice pass that got the goalie to move.
