Nashville Predators Top 10 Prospects Rankings

The Nashville Predators Top 10 Prospects October 2013

1. Austin Watson, RW 2010 1st Round Pick Milwaukee AHL
2. Magnus Hellberg, G 2011 2nd Round Pick Milwaukee AHL
3. Pontus Aberg, C 2012 2nd Round Pick Milwaukee AHL
4. Zach Budish, RW 2009 2nd Round Pick Milwaukee AHL
5. Colton Sissons, RW 2012 2nd Round Pick Milwaukee AHL
6. Taylor Beck, RW 2009 3rd Round Pick Milwaukee AHL
7. Brandon Leipsic, LW 2012 3rd Round Pick Portland WHL
8. Jonathan-Ismael Diaby, D 2013 3rd Round Pick
9. Garrett Noonan, D 2011 4th Round Pick Boston University
10. Patrick Cehlin, LW 2010 5th Round Pick Milwaukee AHL

Nashville Predators Actual Opening Day Lineup with Line Combinations

Lineup

Lines

Eric Nystrom, Mike Fisher, Nick Spaling
Rich Clune, Matt Hendricks, Paul Gaustad
Patrick Hornqvist, David Legwand, Colin Wilson
Gabriel Bourque, Matt Cullen, Craig Smith

The Predators had a few other line combinations in the first period.

Defenseman Pairings:

Shea Weber, Roman Josi
Kevin Klein, Victor Bartley
Seth Jones, Mattias Ekholm

Starting Goaltender: Pekka Rinne Backup: Carter Hutton

Scratches: D Ryan Ellis, C Filip Forsberg

Nashville Predators Set Opening Night Roster

The Nashville Predators have submitted their roster to the league office. The line combinations and defensive pairings could be as follows with Viktor Stalberg on injured reserve to start the season. However Nashville's lines are in flux and could change. Filip Forsberg has made the team at least for now.

Line combination possibilities follow (format left wing, center, right wing) although they had different combination in practice. So this will most likely change after first game and ongoing.

Colin Wilson, Mike Fisher, Patrick Horqvist (been out with injury but day to day)
Gabriel Bourque, Matt Cullen, Craig Smith
Nick Spaling, David Legwand, Eric Nystrom
Rich Clune, Paul Gaustad, Matt Hendricks

Filip Forsberg

IR - Viktor Stalberg

Defensive Pairings

Shea Weber, Roman Josi
Seth Jones, Kevin Klein
Ryan Ellis, Victor Bartley/Mattias Ekholm (7th defenseman)

Goaltenders

Pekka Rinne starter, Carter Hutton backup

2013 NHL Draft Prospect Battle - Jones vs. Nurse vs. Ristolainen

The 2013 NHL Draft was considered one of the best drafts if not the best NHL draft since 2003. Did the Nashville Predators make the right selection with the top defenseman prospect Seth Jones? The Predators defensive corps was already talented and obviously with Shea Weber, Nashville has one of the NHL's top defenseman if not the top defenseman. Jones did stand out as the top defenseman in the draft prior to the draft however this was a very good draft for defenseman. We could include 5th overall pick Center Elias Lindholm in the battle but I'm going to stick with a battle of the top 3 defensemen.

More goes into how these players do than their statistics but you can follow the statistics of these three players here for fun to start.
4th Overall Pick Defenseman Seth Jones Nashville Predators

7th Overall Pick Defenseman Darnell Nurse Edmonton Oilers

8th Overall Pick Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen Buffalo Sabres

Nashville Predators Assign 3 Players to Their Junior Teams

The Nashville Predators returned Tommy Veilleux to Victoriaville (QMJHL), Mikko Vainonen to Kingston (OHL) and Felix Girard to Baie-Comeau (QMJHL). They also assigned 5 players to Milwaukee of the AHL.

2013 Draft Prospects Tracker

1st Round Pick Defenseman Seth Jones -

Jones will likely play for Nashville so he is not considered a prospect.

Seth Jones

3rd Round Pick Defenseman Jonathan Diaby -

Diaby will play for Victoriaville in the OHL in 2013-2014.

Jonathan Diaby

4th Round Pick Center Félix Girard -

Girard will play for Baie-Comeau in the QMJHL in 2013-2014.

Félix Girard

4th Round Pick Goaltender Juuse Saros -

Saros plays for HPK in sm-liiga Finland's Pro League in 2013-2014.

Juuse Saros

5th Round Pick Right Wing Saku Mäenalanen -
Saku will play for Karpat in sm-liiga Finland's Pro League in 2013-2014.

Saku Mäenalanen

5th Round Pick Defenseman Teemu Kivihalme -

Teemu will play for Fargo in the USHL in 2013-2014.

Teemu Kivihalme

6th Round Pick Center Emil Pettersson -

Emil is playing for Tamra in the Allsvenskan Swedish Pro league in 2013-2014.

Emil Pettersson

6th Round Pick Left Wing Tommy Veilleux -
Veilleux will play for Victoriaville in the OHL in 2013-2014.

Tommy Veilleux

7th Round Pick Right Wing Wade Murphy -

Murphy is in his freshman season at the University of North Dakota in 2013-2014.

Wade Murphy

7th Round Pick Goaltender Janne Juvonen -

Janne is playing for Pelicans in sm-ligga Finland's Pro League in 2013-2014.

Janne Juvonen

2012

2012 Draft Prospects Tracker

2nd Round Pick Right Wing Pontus Åberg -

Aberg is playing for Farjestad in the SHL in 2013-2014.

Pontus Åberg

2nd Round Pick Right Wing Colton Sissons -

Sissons will be playing for Milwaukee in the AHL in 2013-2014.

Colton Sissons

 

3rd Round Pick Left Wing Jimmy Vesey -
Vesey enters his sophomore season at Harvard University in 2013-2014.

Jimmy Vesey

3rd Round Pick Left Wing Brendan Leipsic -

Brendan is playing for Portland in the WHL in 2013-2014.

Brendan Leipsic

4th Round Pick Center Zach Stepan -

Stepan is a freshman at Minnesota State (Mankato) in 2013-2014.

Zach Stepan

4th Round Pick Defenseman Mikko Vainonen -

Mikko will play for Kingston in the OHL in 2013-2014.

Mikko Vainonen

6th Round Pick Defenseman Simon Fernholm -

Fernholm will play for Frolunda in the SuperElit Swedish Pro Hockey league in 2013-2014.

Simon Fernholm

6th Round Pick Right Wing Max Görtz -
Gortz is playing for Farjestad in the SHL in 2013-2014.

Max Görtz

6th Round Pick Goaltender Marek Mazanec -

Marek will be playing for Milwaukee in the AHL in 2013-2014.

Marek Mazanec