After a promising start to the year, the Nashville Predators were hit with injuries to their key players and started moving steadily down the standings.

Due to that fall, the management proceeded to trade some of its injured key parts as they became healthy. Key figures departing from Nashville were Blake Wheeler, Darcy Kuemper, Anthony Mantha, Milan Lucic, Carson Soucy, Luke Schenn, and Brian Dumoulin. In return, the Predators received a mix of roster players and futures: Derrick Brassard, Kyle Palmieri, Justin Holl, John Gibson, Trey Fix-Wolansky, Benoit-Olivier Groulx, and a couple of picks in the 4th and 5th rounds.

With the deadline past, the Predators are looking at the playoffs from an outside perspective, being 9 points behind the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. However, the Predators have three games in hand, so there's some catching up that could happen. The roster remains depleted with three players that would usually slot in the top 6 currently injured in Mikael Granlund, Kyle Palmieri, and Troy Terry.

So far this season, the best players on the team have performed well when healthy. Granlund and Ehlers are both scoring close to a point per game. Bjorkstrand and Terry have also provided decent scoring around .75 PPG. To complete the top 6, Cirelli and Palmieri have provided secondary scoring at close to .60 PPG. On defense, Montour has been really good with 39 points in 57 games. Between the pipes, Gibson has been solid but has missed many games due to not being 100% healthy. On the other hand, considering the games lost to injuries, the depth scoring has been lacking, providing around .25 PPG only. The young guns like Hayton and Dellandrea have just not been able to make their marks.