The Nashville Predators are done talking about last season.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not interested in recalling how things didn\u2019t go as planned, how the loss column was fuller than the wins or how the playoffs weren\u2019t in sight.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean they forgot what happened either.<\/p>\n
And now, on the eve of the 2025-26 NHL campaign, these Nashville Predators are instead very much interested in discussing how much better they feel about their group, their chances and their outlook for the journey ahead.<\/p>\n
Plus, there\u2019s a fresh face around providing plenty of reason for optimism.<\/p>\n
Brady Martin, Nashville\u2019s first pick (5th overall) in last June\u2019s NHL Draft, will make his professional debut on Thursday as the Preds host Columbus on Opening Night to begin the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s expected to serve as a centerman between NHL veterans Filip Forsberg and Ryan O\u2019Reilly, not a small ask for an 18-year-old. But Martin has proved, at least to start the season, he deserves the chance to show what he\u2019s got in the best League in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s earned the opportunity to play, and he’s had a great camp,\u201d Preds Head Coach Andrew Brunette said of Martin. \u201c[He\u2019s a] young player that we’re really excited for, and he came in, and it was hard not to have him on that line and not to have him here today. So, we\u2019ll reevaluate with him every day, but we’re super excited organizationally, and all the coaching staff, to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n
“It’s been crazy,\u201d Martin said Wednesday of the past three-plus months of his life. \u201cA lot of stuff has happened, and I just take it day-by-day. Now, to finally get to play my first NHL game, it’s exciting and it’s an honor. I can’t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Reilly and Forsberg own a combined 1,932 NHL games between the two of them, just a few more than Martin. Understandably so, the rookie has done plenty of observing and questioning those two over the past few weeks, and it certainly hasn\u2019t hurt his cause.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve talked to \u2018Factor\u2019 and Fil a lot, and they’ve helped me throughout this whole camp,\u201d Martin said of his linemates. \u201cI\u2019m blessed to have them by my side for this journey\u2026 They\u2019ve been in the League for a long time, so to have them help me, it’s a blessing. It\u2019s been a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nashville Predators are done talking about last season. They\u2019re not interested in recalling how things didn\u2019t go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-198810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}