Now, with Nashville's roster currently sitting five players over the 23-man limit required to be reached by Monday afternoon, the Predators will have some difficult decisions to make following today's outing - a process Head Coach John Hynes described in depth on Friday afternoon.
\[Today's Preds Roster vs. Carolina\]
"Every player that's here, we felt has had a strong enough camp to make the team, or to be a really hard cut," Hynes said. "I'd say the final exhibition game, the guys that get into it, it's a big evaluation because you may be talking about one component of the lineup like, 'Does this guy fit with this guy?' Or, 'Is this a good combination? Do we need a center? Do we need a wing? Is it a power-play element?' So…it is a pretty big eval lots of times… [You're thinking things like], 'Do they handle the pace? Is it a rebound game for someone? Did someone play well, didn't have a good game and you're like, OK, let's give it back, and this is kind of if he makes the corrections and solidifies it.' It is a game that people are, to be honest, they're solidifying either making the team, or sometimes roles on the team."
Forwards Philip Tomasino and Egor Afanasyev are among those hoping to find themselves still on the roster come Opening Night, and while their respective statuses remain to be seen, Hynes also offered insight into that decision-making process earlier in the week.
"I think it's really important that we make the right decision for the player," Hynes said. "Both of those guys are young guys, and you see pockets where they've been really good. Phil's got a couple goals, Egor scored some goals, you see Egor's size and skating, and you see Tomasino's speed and competitiveness, but is that something that you feel is ready to be [there] night in and night out? And then the other one is like where do they necessarily fit in the lineup? You don't want to have a young player where, say they make the team just to say they made the team, but maybe they're only playing around 10 or 11 minutes. That's not good for them. Sometimes it is good for a player to be able to play in Milwaukee, even if it's for 10 games, 15 games, and they're really going and playing 20 minutes and doing their thing and all of a sudden, they're called up to get to play. I think the biggest thing is are all the attributes in their game ready to do it night in and night out, and are their best attributes at a level where you think they're going to be able to be successful?"
Afanasyev has scored three goals for the Preds in the preseason, and Forsberg (2g-3a) leads the team in points with five. Duchene, Tomasino and Jeannot have each found the back of the net twice for the Predators, and goaltender Juuse Saros is 2-0-0 with 1.47 goals-against average and a .949 save percentage.
