Predators 'Building Toward the Future' at 2024 NHL Draft

With the 2024 NHL Draft fast approaching, the Nashville Predators amateur scouts are huddled at the team offices in Bridgestone Arena this week, busily comparing evaluations and compiling their wish list of prospects they hope are available come June 28.

It's a "beginning of the end" of sorts for the year-long scouting process that will culminate at the 2024 NHL Draft, which will be held June 28–29, 2024, at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Nashville's amateur scouts, under the leadership of Assistant GM/Director of Scouting Jeff Kealty and Chief Amateur Scout Tom Nolan, have gathered information all year; their goal this week is not only to build a list of prospects but also to put a strategy in place based on where the Predators are set to pick in this year's draft order.

"We have a good opportunity with with a lot of picks early in the draft, but you never know what can happen with different trade scenarios," Kealty said. "You may end up having picks later in the draft that we need to be ready for... The picks are currency and assets to not just pick players but to do lots of different things. Maybe it turns into a younger prospect from another team that we can get that's part of our future. Maybe it turns into a younger pro that's 23, 24 years old that helps us now but [also] helps us in the future. So those are things that we're going through organizationally, all together."

The Predators have nine picks in the first four rounds of the 2024 draft, including four in the first two rounds alone. Five of their picks were acquired via trade over the past two seasons, presenting Kealty and his staff with the unique challenge of stockpiling talent for the future of a team looking to remain competitive in the present.

"I think it's coincided well, where the team still competitive and we made the playoffs," Kealty said. "You've heard [general manager Barry Trotz] talk about it a lot, but that's really where you want to be. You want to be building for the future, but you want to have that culture in place with a competitive team so that when these young players and these prospects come onto our team, they're learning the right way. They're learning from Ryan O'Reilly and Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg... These guys are learning from competitive guys who know how to win. They come in, and they don't just get the league handed to them; they learn the right way, they go through the right process, and eventually they become the leader. So, it's really all one process together."

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Of course, being in a competitive rebuild means picking near the middle or end of the draft order, where separating the future NHL stars from the competition becomes even more challenging.

"You're always looking for upside," Kealty said. "That's the goal. You want to get the best players you can. But with where we pick in the draft – and it's a good thing that we're competitive – we're not picking in the top five, top 10 every year. We're picking mid-first round or later first round, so you've got to evaluate who's got the most upside, who could be the next star someday."

When it comes to evaluating draft prospects, tangible skills and talent are only half the battle. The Predators' amateur scouts are also tasked with gathering information about players' character and their intangible qualities like competitiveness and coachability.

"You're drafting the players for what they are now, but you're trying to project what they'll be in the future," Kealty said. "So, you have to try to identify those things that can allow the player to develop... When they're 18, what are they going to be when they're 24, 25 years old? So, in order to try to determine that, you've got to really try to find those things underneath that are in place that are going to allow the player to develop."

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Nashville's greatest organizational deficiencies can be found down the middle and on the back end. With a number of skilled wingers already in their prospect pipeline, the Predators will likely prioritize skilled centermen and big-bodied defensemen in this year's draft. Ultimately, though, the draft represents a delicate balancing act between present and future organizational success.

"All of our [scouts] are on board with trying to do what's best for the organization," Kealty said. "We've got our amateur meetings this week, then pro scouts are coming in tonight, and they'll be part of the meetings tomorrow and Friday. That's a whole other side of it that we're evaluating and we're always looking to to improve our team. I think our goals are [to be] competitive now, but we're building towards the future as well."