20 Games In: How Different is Nashville This Season?
A quarter into the season and the stats raise some concerning questions.
Through the first 20 games of the 2025–26 NHL season, the Nashville Predators find themselves in a similar spot to last year: comfortably out of the playoffs.
It is a different team this time around, as adjustments made at last year’s trade deadline, free agency, and the emergence of Matthew Wood have changed the way this team looks. But do the numbers reflect that? The simple answer is no.
At almost a quarter of the way through the season, Nashville sits at a 6-10-4 record and has been seriously slumping as of late, losing eight of its last 10.
At this point in 2024, the team had dropped seven of 10 games, leading to a record to 6-11-3. It’s nearly identical, and the similarities do not stop there.
A large part of the struggle has been the lack of offense. This year, the Predators scored 48 goals for an average of 2.40 per game. Last year? Forty-six goals and a 2.30 average per game.
Only the Calgary Flames have a lower total this year, and no one was worse at this time last November.
The real differences start to show when looking at the defensive numbers. Nashville has struggled to keep the puck out of its net more this season compared to the 2024 campaign.
The Predators allow the fourth-most goals on a per-game basis with 3.50, while last year they were middle-of-the-pack with a solid 3.20. Defense is also where the front office made changes during the offseason, but it just hasn’t clicked yet.
The differences continue when looking at who is doing the scoring for the Predators. Obviously, the team is missing Roman Josi, who has been out since late October with an upper-body injury, so his name is not at the top of the points list where it normally sits.
Filip Forsberg’s name remains there, however, as he currently has the exact same point totals as he did at this point last season (8-7–15). Ryan O’Reilly has improved and is right there with him (6-7–13).
And this is where things get interesting, as youngster Matthew Wood has scored six times in just 13 games, while his usually dependable teammates have fallen behind.
Steven Stamkos, who has always put up strong point totals throughout his career, has just five this year. Four of those are goals, leaving just one assist, which is unlike the veteran, now in his age-35 season.
Another veteran who is not producing at his usual level is Jonathan Marchessault, now 34. He’s tallied just four goals and two assists and has not recorded a point since November 1st.
Those two players each had 10 points at this time last year but are failing to keep pace as the team continues to struggle.
Even Juuse Saros’ numbers have taken a hit. Last season he had a very solid .914 save percentage compared to the .892 he has now. It’s tough to entirely blame him for his production drop as he continues to be among the league leaders in most shots faced.
Nashville is currently sitting as the 31st out of the 32 teams and will have to do a lot of work before they start thinking about a playoff push.
-Image courtesy of Nashville Predators/John Russell