Nashville Predators: The Five Tiers of Talent for 2021 Offseason

Mattias Ekholm:

As rock-solid a defender as you’ll ever see, this big-bodied beast almost never makes mistakes. Ekholm is consistently in the right place, using his size, settling pucks, and transitioning into offense. His one knock is his speed, which doesn’t allow him to create offense quite like Josi does, but Ekholm can do everything on the defensive side of the ice.

Ryan Ellis:

A polarizing player, to be sure, but it would be difficult to put Ellis any lower than this tier. Even though he is liable to make a completely bone-headed turnover or bad pass every once in a while, he is a very good overall player and was critically important in several of the Predators’ late-season wins.

Eeli Tolvanen:

Sure, he slumped at the absolute worst time and was benched during part of the playoffs. But man, is this kid electric. Tolvy is a young, raw talent that has already taken massive strides since last year. When he’s good, he’s really good. It would not surprise me in the least if he ends up being our top point-scorer next year, especially with his lethal shot release.

Mikael Granlund:

I’d call Granlund “the Ekholm of the offense” due to his consistency. He is never flashy, but the Predators can pretty much always count on Granlund to be in the right place, doing the right thing.

Granlund was one of the lone bright spots during the Predators in their early season slump. He finished tied for team lead in goals (13), and was also second on the team with five power play goals, only one behind Tolvanen.

Matt Duchene:

I firmly believe that Duchene’s production suffered because he was significantly better than his linemates for the majority of the year. I remember countless plays where he’d weave through a defense or out-muscle another player and make an incredible pass to a spot directly in front of an open net, only to see his linemates fumble the pass, or whiff the shot, or not even see the pass at all.

Duchene is scary quick when handling the puck, but fell victim to HC Hynes’ constant line-shuffling and couldn’t develop chemistry with his linemates. Consistency in the lineup will almost certainly yield far better numbers for Duchene next season.

Calle Jarnkrok:

Much like Granlund, Jarnkrok is a quiet, non-flashy player who just gets the job done. He tied Granlund for a team-high 13 goals and was third on the team with 28 points, behind only Josi and Forsberg.

Say what you will about the plus/minus statistic, but it’s worth noting that Jarnkrok had the 2nd-best (+13) on the team, falling short of only Ekholm (+19).