The Nashville Predators have announced their opening night roster.
As expected with injuries to Mike Fisher, Viktor Stalberg and Matt Cullen, the Predators are keeping its latest training camp roster in its entirety. There was some question as to whether Stalberg or Cullen would be healthy enough to return to the lineup in time for Thursday night’s opener against the Ottawa Senators.
If that had been the case for either (or both) of them, it would have forced the coaching staff and General Manager David Poile to have some pretty interesting conversations. How would they deal with the surplus of forwards? Would Calle Jarnkrok, who impressed at the NHL level last season, be assigned to the Milwaukee Admirals simply because he could be? Would Taylor Beck, who recently signed a one-way deal, be sent down and exposed to waivers? Would there be a trade?
Luckily for Poile, Head Coach Peter Laviolette and the Predators organization, they don’t need to have that conversation.
At least not yet.
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Opening night roster (in alphabetical order) is as follows.
Forwards:
Taylor Beck
Gabriel Bourque
Rich Clune
Filip Forsberg
Paul Gaustad
Calle Jarnkrok
Olli Jokinen
James Neal
Eric Nystrom
Mike Ribeiro
Derek Roy
Craig Smith
Colin Wilson
Defensemen:
Victor Bartley
Mattias Ekholm
Ryan Ellis
Seth Jones
Roman Josi
Anton Volchenkov
Shea Weber
Goaltenders:
Carter Hutton
Pekka Rinne
