Better Luck Next Year: What direction is Chris MacFarland going to take the Nashville Predators in?

The Nashville Predators have a new general manager and he has some big decisions to make.

Welcome back to Better Luck Next Year, a series that will focus on each team as they get eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What went wrong, why it went wrong, what (if anything) went right, and what is next. We continue today with the Nashville Predators.

The Nashville Predators are the last of the non-playoff teams in this series, and it just so happened that by the time I got to them they were hiring a new general manager.

So that makes things easy here.

The Predators announced on Tuesday that they were prying Chris MacFarland out of the Colorado Avalanche organization, ending a month’s long search for their general manager position.

The Predators job has been up for grabs since the middle of the 2025-26 regular season when Barry Trotz announced that he would be stepping down from the role.

It is a decision that is probably for the best.

While Trotz has a fantastic resume as a head coach, he did not seem to transition well into a front office role and left the Predators in a really awkward situation for his replacement.

MacFarland brings a strong management resume with him into Nashville, having helped build a powerhouse Colorado team and serving as its general manager through this year’s Presidents’ Trophy (and Western Conference Finals run) season. While there is a lot to like about this job and opportunity, he is still going to have a tough task in front of him. The first step is going to be figuring out which direction to take his new organization.

The past two years have seen the Predators become one of the most objectively “mid” teams in the league.

They finished the 2025-26 season with 86 points, having missed the playoffs by four points in a watered-down Western Conference.

Their overall record in the league? 23rd.

Their overall goal-differential? 22nd.

Their 5-on-5 goal-differential? 27th.

Their 5-on-5 expected goal share? 19th.

It was only slightly better than their 2024-25 performance where they ranked 30th in the league standings, 30th in goal-differential, 32nd in 5-on-5 goal differential and 14th in expected goal share.

It’s just not great. Not awful. But definitely not great.

It’s also a team that has a shockingly older core. Their average age was the seventh-oldest in the league this past season, while eight of their top-10 scorers were over the age of 30. That includes five players who were over the age of 34.

Also not great for a team that has missed the playoffs two years in a row and three of the past four.

But Nashville is also in a pretty intriguing situation, especially for a new general manager.

While the core of the roster is older and on the wrong side of 30, the Predators do have a deep farm system with a couple of potential high-end players. Brady Martin, the No. 5 overall pick in 2025, and Matthew Wood, the No. 15 pick from 2023, are at the top of that list. Both players saw some NHL action this season, with Wood scoring 17 goals as a 20-year-old. They also have Ryker Lee, Yegor Surin and Cameron Reid starting to knock on the door.

Along with that, Nashville enters the offseason with $27 million in salary cap space and a massive pile of draft assets that includes multiple picks in the second, third and fourth rounds in each of the next three drafts. There is a lot you can do with that sort of draft capital and salary cap space, not to mention the prospect pool.

But MacFarland’s first big task is going to simply be determining what direction he wants to take this team.

Is there something he can win with here?

Does he have a potential star in his farm system that can be “the guy” in the near-future?

Does he need to tear it all down to the ground and begin a full-scale rebuild? If he decides to go in that direction, he still has some pretty significant veteran pieces that should have some serious trade value, especially going into an offseason where the free agent pool is grim and there are not many other teams looking to sell.

There would be a massive market for Ryan O’Reilly given his production, two-way play and cheap contract.

Filip Forsberg and Steven Stamkos are coming off 40-goal seasons, with Forsberg continuing to be one of the top goal-scorers in the league.

Roman Josi can still provide some big offense from the blue line when healthy.

Trotz probably would have kept trying to win with these guys.

MacFarland may not be as optimistic about that and may see an opportunity to begin building something with a clean slate.

We will learn a lot about all of this in the coming weeks and months.

Let’s talk a little more about that, as well as the 2025-26 season and what went right, and what went wrong.

What went right this season