Hey Yo: Sports Talk with Some Southern Swagger

“Hot Takes, Cold Beers, and Southern Swagger.”

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  • Barry Trotz Steps Down, What’s Next?

    In shocking news Barry Trotz is reportedly stepping down as GM of the Preds once they find a replacement. It’s not necessarily shocking that Trotz won’t be GM in the 2026-27 season, it’s that this announcement is made about a month prior to the trade deadline in which the Preds are likely to be an active team.

    Trotz’s tenure as GM has been a weird one where the Preds have tried to rebuild on the fly in a sport where that’s almost impossible. In the NHL you have to be all in (chasing a cup) or all out (tanking). I get the hesitation to tank because it doesn’t guarantee you a cup but looking at the top players in the league, they are almost all are top 3 draft picks in the draft, somewhere the Preds have drafted only once in their history and that was inaugural draft for the team in 1998.

    A brief timeline of the Trotz Era: February 2023 named the replacement for the retiring David Poile, highlight of the 2023-24 season was the magical run after they canceled a trip to the Sphere to watch U2 that gave Trotz some false hope that a full rebuild wasn’t necessary, went all in during the summer of 2024, disastrous 2024-25 season, and the 2025-26 season that has been better than last season but a team that is more likely to have a top 5 pick than be a cup contender.

    I hope everything is ok with Trotz and his family and that isn’t leading to this decision but from a hockey standpoint being at a crossroads of needing to blow it up and rebuild stronger is the likely reason for his decision to step down at this time. There are a handful of expiring contracts that there shouldn’t be any hesitation to move for picks/prospects, then you have the 2024 Free Agent class that ultimately hasn’t delivered what Trotz had hoped and either the deadline or this summer something needs to be done with those contracts, and lastly you have Josi, Forsberg, and Saros where someone needs to have a conversation on do they want to ride out the rebuild or chase a cup.

    The bright spot for the Trotz era has been his draft picks specifically in the 1st round. Matthew Wood, Tanner Molendyk, Yegor Surin, Brady Martin, Cameron Reid, and Ryker Lee are all looking like players that will contribute for the Preds in the future so in one way you can say that Trotz has left the franchise in better shape than it was when he took over as GM, but on the other hand the last 3 years feel like a wasted 3 years that could have been better utilized to rebuild than being a pretender delaying the inevitable.

    What’s next for the Preds? Finding a GM with experience with a rebuild would be a good place to start. The Preds GM history is Poile from 1998-2023 and Trotz 2023-present, that’s it. It’s time to go outside the Preds tree and make an outside hire that brings a new perspective and embraces the much needed rebuild. That would likely be followed by a new HC and a bunch of trades. Things will likely get worse before they get better but if they are able to bottom out and add a couple high end prospects it could completely reshape the future of the franchise which should be the end game with this change at GM.

  • Ranking the NFL Head Coach Vacancies

    So far, we are up to 7 Head Coach openings so I am going to rank them in order most desirable to least desirable, will keep this updated if there are more jobs that come open, looking at you NYJ, Cincy (surely that statement they released today was a mistake), and Tampa. The one thing I will note is that I found myself moving teams down the list instead of up the list when I was making it so if you are shocked that teams are so high on my list it was more about how bad some of these franchises are instead of how good these franchises are.

    1. Baltimore – Early prediction is Kevin Stefanski as a Bud Adams double bird salute to Cleveland.
      • Pros: Lamar Jackson, competent franchise in a great division for long-term success, and a team that has consistently won for what feels like the last 20 years.
      • Cons: You have to live in/around Baltimore.
    2. Tennessee Titans –
      • Pros: They have a franchise QB (I think), they have a GM that has some positive momentum, tons of cap space to work with, no state income tax, and they move into a new stadium in 2027.
      • Cons: Roster has a ton of holes so realistically the Titans are still a couple years away from being competitive and the Amy Adams Strunk is one of the worst owners in the NFL.
    3. Las Vegas Raiders
      • Pros: No state income tax and #1 pick in the draft to get a QB. Jeanty and Bowers are 2 players that have All Pro potential.
      • Cons: Roster with more holes than the Titans (didn’t think that was possible).
    4. New York Giants
      • Pros: Love the DL they have put together I feel like that is a great foundation on that side of the ball.
      • Cons: I’m not a believer in Dart or Skattebo. Might be a hot take but ultimately, I think injuries will be the constant theme with these two and as the saying goes availability is the best ability. Dart visited the blue tent 5 different games for a concussion check which isn’t sustainable for a career and Skattebo isn’t going to make guys miss he’s going to take on hit after hit after hit and eventually all those hits will break him down. Also you have to deal with the NY media which is just a constant cycle of drama that I wouldn’t want to deal with.
    5. Atlanta Falcons
      • Pros: They have some nice pieces, weak division, and my favorite NFL stadium I have been to (100% related to the concession prices).
      • Cons: QB Purgatory
    6. Miami Dolphins
      • Pros: Can’t get a much better location for a Pro Sports franchise than Miami.
      • Cons: Your best player is a RB, no clue what they do or where they go with QB, and they are in a division with Josh Allen and Drake Maye.
    7. Arizona Cardinals
      • Pros: If I could pick anywhere in the US to live, Arizona would be high on my list.
      • Cons: QB Purgatory
    8. Cleveland Browns
      • Pros:
      • Cons: Franchise Purgatory

  • Centennial Sportsplex, Just Say No!

    The whole purpose of starting to blog was to write about things I am passionate about. Most of the time it will be about the Titans, Preds, or Vols but today is dedicated to Centennial Sportsplex and the current dilemma they find themselves in with the Preds. For full disclosure I have a son that currently plays youth hockey in Nashville. He has played at the Ford Ice Centers in Bellevue and Antioch along with NYHL at Centennial. Our experiences at the Ford Ice Centers were underwhelming with the exception of the bar at Bellevue, that is a nice touch. NYHL at Centennial has been by far our favorite so seeing something that has a chance to blow that up is what is the driver behind this post.

    The Preds are wanting to invest 30 million up front to give Centennial a much-needed facelift and invest up to 100 million over the next 25 years maintaining a state-of-the-art facility. That part sounds great and if it was only an investment for improving their practice facility you wouldn’t hear anything negative about this but with that investment, the Preds are also wanting to take over the day-to-day ice rink operations which is one helluva poison pill to swallow especially if you are a parent for a kid that plays youth hockey at Centennial.

    That poison pill is one that I just can’t bring myself to overlook. There is a great example of this very thing happening in Dallas where the Stars have monopolized the ice rinks in the greater Dallas area and the only people benefiting from this are the Dallas Stars and their bottom line. They have managed to turn the local ice rinks into another profit arm for the Dallas Stars. I’ve heard Sean Henry say that there are no plans for what has happened in Dallas to happen in Nashville but Pro Sports are copycat leagues and when something works for one organization then others will try to emulate it.

    At the end of the day, it’s all about the money and if you follow the money it will lead you to the motives behind what the Preds are trying to do. They aren’t wanting to invest 100 million over the next 25 years out of goodwill and generosity they are doing it because there is a Cost Benefit Analysis showing them a payback on this investment.

    If you think I’m just being a cynic and overly negative about this I would encourage you to just look at season ticket prices, concession prices, and the price of merchandise in the Pro Shops at Bridgestone Arena, the Nashville Predators have always been about how to maximize profits. Not faulting the Preds at all on this because they aren’t a nonprofit organization, but please don’t hide behind this being a charitable investment with no ulterior motives. At the end of the day I really hope Metro Parks can find a way to just say no to the Nashville Predators attempt to take over Centennial Sportsplex Ice Rinks.

  • The 2018 Draft: When the Titans’ Downfall Quietly Began

    As we sit here today the Tennessee Titans are in the unenviable position of being two years away from being two years away (shoutout Bruno Caboclo) which is unfathomable in today’s NFL. Apathy has set in with the Titans fanbase, ticket prices are cheaper than a Bud Light on Broadway, and the roster has more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese. It obviously isn’t something that happened overnight it’s a culmination of years of mismanagement which I will detail in the coming weeks but when trying to figure out where the downfall started going back to the 2018 Draft is a great place to start.

    When thinking about the NFL draft I like to think of draft picks as lottery scratch offs. You are going to miss more than you hit and when you do hit, you are more likely to get a free ticket (depth player/fringe starter) than you are to hit something more than a free ticket (legit starter/Pro Bowl caliber player). If given the option, the more scratch offs you have the better the chance you have at winning something. It is why the good Franchises play the comp pick game and tend to trade down to gain more picks than trading up and going all in fewer picks in the draft. If you didn’t already know you all can see where this is going.

    The 2018 NFL Draft the Titans ended up making 4 picks. Traded up to pick LB Rashaan Evans in the 1st round, traded up to get Edge Harold Landry in the 2nd round, and traded up yet again to move into the 5th round to draft S Dan Cruikshank. The only pick that didn’t involve a trade up was in the 6th round where they picked QB Luke Falk. The process that went into this draft is one that you could argue a Super Bowl contender might should consider if they thought they were 1-2 players away and they fell in love with those players in the draft evaluation period, but the Titans were a 9-7 team with a negative point differential. The process was terrible, and the results weren’t much better.

    Rashaan Evans was a disappointing middle linebacker that never lived up to the 1st round hype. Harold Landry was a solid edge for the Titans and the only true contributor from the draft class. Dane Cruikshank was an oft injured special teamer that never really contributed for the Titans on defense. Luke Falk never played a down for the Titans. Just a disappointing draft for a team that wasn’t nearly good enough to go all in by repeatedly trading up and minimizing their draft picks. It’s a mistake of unwarranted arrogance from the Titan’s front office that thought they were closer to being a Super Bowl contender than they actually were. I’m cautiously optimistic that the Titans have hit rock bottom but the journey to the bottom definitely didn’t happen overnight and there will be more to come on this journey.

  • Preds in Sweden!?!?!

    Preds have an afternoon game today (11/14) and a morning game on Sunday (11/16) against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Sweden. While I loathe the NFL efforts to have games in Europe, I welcome the NHL playing games in Europe and candidly wish they played more in Europe.

    The NHL is essentially made up of 40% Canadians, 30% Americans, and 30% Europeans so it is easy to see why the NHL would be playing games over in Europe. Along those same lines over the past year the NHL World Cup of Hockey was the best thing that hockey has done in recent memory and possibly ever. It seemed to capture the mainstream sports world and showcased the greatness of hockey. I get hockey doesn’t have the historical mainstream appeal as baseball and basketball but when you go watch a game in person the speed, physicality, and non-stop action really stands out compared to attending a regular season MLB and NBA game. Will hockey ever slide into the #2 American sport behind football? Probably not, but there is an opportunity to continue to narrow that gap and now is the perfect time for Hockey to continue to do things to try to highlight what a great product they have to showcase. While saying all that it would be nice if the European games were on ESPN or TNT instead of NHL Network for that it actually reaches an audience but all in all this is a great thing for growing the game of hockey.

    The other thing that stands out when comparing the NHL with the NFL is the NFL only has 8-9 Home games while the NHL has 41 Home games. If you reduce the number of home games by a couple for the NHL for them to be neutral site games in Europe it doesn’t impact the season ticket holder experience while the reduction of even 1 home game for an NFL team does feel like a substantial loss for season ticket holders. The next step for the NHL feels like sending 4 teams over at a time and having a round robin instead of the same two teams playing twice in less than 48 hours.

    Some quick predictions and favorite bets for the games in Europe (using Draftkings for the odds): Filip Forsberg shots on goal 5+ (+300) he is going to be amped playing in Sweden and will pepper the net, Malkin Goal (+205) for some reason it feels like he always scores against the Preds, and Penguins moneyline (-130) the Preds just aren’t that good so it feels like a game the Penguins win. You can parlay those 3 bets for +1300 odds. I am going to track my bets that I give our on a spreadsheet to see how bad of a bettor I actually am (expectation is very bad).

  • Hey Yo: Sports Talk with Some Southern Swagger

    In case you have stumbled upon this Blog, thanks for giving it a read and I hope you enjoy. I am an 80’s baby that grew up on the Braves on TBS, the voice of John Ward, and the growth of Nashville professional sports. What a time to grow up, little did I know all that winning wouldn’t last forever and what I got to experience in the 90’s was about as good as it gets. Almost every core memory as a kid revolves around sports and that is what brought me here to start writing about the teams I have grown to love over the last 40 years. This blog will be from the lens of a 40-year-old fan who mixes in some nostalgia from my youth along with some hot (or maybe cold) takes on the current status of each team. I will be live tweeting games from @HeyYoSports and interacting with fans there if you are on Twitter (I guess it’s technically called X). I will be using the rest of this year as a “soft launch” to find a cadence that works for me but I would expect the blogs to be relatively short and quick reads.