Nashville Predators show trust in coach John Hynes and staff with contract extensions

NASHVILLE - The Nashville Predators have extended the contracts of coach John Hynes and his assistants through the 2023-24 NHL season, giving them an opportunity to build on a campaign with several individual successes for a franchise that wound up being swept in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time.

General manager David Poile announced Thursday that Hynes and his assistants have agreed to the extensions.

"I believe John and his coaching staff are the right move to lead us back into Cup contention, and I will do everything in my power to give him the necessary tools to accomplish that goal," Poile said.

Poile hired Hynes in January 2020 to replace Peter Laviolette and take over as just the third head coach in the history of a franchise that made its on-ice debut in 1998. Laviolette, who replaced longtime coach Barry Trotz in 2014, was fired three years after a wild-card run netted Nashville's lone Stanley Cup Final appearance to date.

Hynes has won only three playoff games with the Predators, who have not won a postseason series since the first round in 2018, the year they won the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's top team in the regular season.

The Colorado Avalanche, the Western Conference's top seed this year, polished off a first-round sweep of Nashville on May 9 as the wild-card Predators finished the season having won just one of their final nine games.

That occurred despite a roster that included captain Roman Josi, a Norris Trophy finalist who posted the highest-scoring season by a defenseman in 29 years; goalie Juuse Saros, a Vezina Trophy finalist after notching 38 of Nashville's 45 wins; and Matt Duchene, who set the franchise's single-season goals record with 43, one more than teammate Filip Forsberg.

Hynes said the Predators wanted to be hard to play against with an aggressive, fast style - and the team led the NHL in fighting majors, total penalties and penalty minutes during the recently completed regular season. Hynes said the team is already working to clean up penalties that can be avoided by playing with better discipline.

"We've all got to be better to get to a level where that series can be much more competitive than it was," Hynes said.

Poile noted Thursday that Nashville has worked to turn one of the NHL's older rosters into one of the league's youngest. During the series with Colorado, only six Predators remained from that 2018 first-round win over the Avalanche: Josi, defenseman Mattias Ekholm, centers Ryan Johansen and Colton Sissons, Forsberg and Saros.

The GM also said the sweep at Colorado's hands made clear that Nashville is more than just one or two players away. Nashville did secure an eighth straight playoff berth, tied for second in the NHL with the Washington Capitals and trailing only the Pittsburgh Penguins' run in that stretch, but Poile said his job is to get better talent for Hynes.

The plan to turn Nashville back into a Stanley Cup contender has the backing of the ownership group, something Poile talked repeatedly about over the past 10 days with team president Sean Henry and team chairman Herb Fritch.

"We have the group's full support," Poile said.

Poile didn't have anything new to report on negotiations for a contract extension for Forsberg, who scored a career-high 42 goals in 69 games this season. Poile said the 27-year-old Swede has earned the right to be a free agent, but the GM wants to keep him on the team.

"We are going to continue working to try to find that right deal that works for both sides," Poile said, "and we know that he can be a big piece of where we are trying to go."

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