What To Expect In Matt Duchene’s First Year With The Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators landed their big fish on July 1st with the signing of Matt Duchene, but what should we expect from Matt Duchene in his first season in the Music City.

There is a lot to expect from Matt Duchene, who the Nashville Predators have been pursuing for the past few seasons now, inquiring about acquiring him via trade several times before the signing this season.

He did back up all of the talk around his name last year, tying his career-high in points with 70 and hitting his career-high in goals with 31.

Duchene now becomes one of the focal points of an offense in a city he has been desiring to play in for years, which could create the perfect environment to build off of the strong season he had last year.

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He will likely play on the first power play unit while centering a line with Mikael Granlund and Craig Smith on it, which gives him arguably much more stability than what he had while he was playing with Colorado, Ottawa, and Columbus.

He now gets to play on a competitive team, where he can be a crucial part of fixing the power play issues the Nashville Predators had last season while playing with reliable linemates without having to worry about the lines being shuffled for the first time in his career.

He would be able to receive passes from Granlund while setting up Smith to score goals, which will help him easily generate points next season.

Duchene is the type of player who can both score goals and make plays, so he will be able to keep defenses guessing while dominating play against the opposition’s second unit, as the JOFA line will likely keep its spot as the Nashville Predators first line.

I could possibly see Matt Duchene breaking his career highs yet again this season, setting the Nashville Predators record for goals in a single season with 35 and adding 45 assists for 80 points next season, a career season for the 28 year old.

The comfort of playing somewhere he desires to play for while playing for a stable organization will help Duchene tremendously, as he hasn’t had anything like that for his entire career.

The Nashville Predators are the perfect fit for Matt Duchene to have a career year, and we should be seeing a lot of success this season.