Nashville Predators: The Five Tiers of Talent for 2021 Offseason

Now that we’ve all had time to mourn the loss to the Carolina Hurricanes (cue resounding boos), it’s time we took a look back on what turned out to be a surprisingly productive season for our Nashville Predators.

However, rather than looking at the team as a whole, we’re going to look at individual players.

In this article, I’ve organized the entire Preds roster into five “tiers” based on their performance in 2021, with a small explanation as to why each player ended up where he did. The tiers are labeled as follows: Elite (best of the best), Great (really good, but slightly lacking in some way), Solid (decent/average players), Meh… (some/many glaring weaknesses), and Developmental (need to see more from them before forming a full opinion).

Most players who played in fewer than 10 games were left off of this list.

Filip Forsberg:

Arguably one of the most dangerous offensive players in the NHL, Forsberg can strike like lightning at any moment. He’s fast, he’s physical, and he makes everyone around him better. His 32 points this year are second-best on the team, and it took him just 39 games to earn them.

Roman Josi:

Another obvious choice, Nashville’s captain and previous Norris Trophy winner is easily one of the most talented defenseman in the NHL. A superb skater, Josi can move like a forward, creating offense when his team needs him most.

Josi led the Predators in TOI (time on ice), points (33), and blocks (83) in this past season.

Juuse Saros:

Nashville’s MVP for 2021 is the sole reason the Predators even sniffed the playoffs. A significant snub in the race for the Vezina Trophy, Saros was outstanding after his return from his early season injury.

Saros also shattered the franchise record for saves in Game 4 of the 2021 playoffs with 58, breaking his previous record of 52, which he had set two days prior in Game 3.

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).

Viktor Arvidsson:

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Arvi. He’s so exciting to watch, and frankly, the “Arvi Hustle” needs to become a dance similar to the “Super Bowl Shuffle” from many years back. (Tik-Tok users, get on it.)

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But while Arvidsson is fast as hell and loves scoring on breakaways and in short-handed situations, there’s no denying he’s a liability on defense due to his small size. He spends almost as much time getting knocked down as he does skating, and frankly, I don’t know that he demands playing time like he used to, especially with all the younger talent the Predators have.

Arvidsson’s volatility and lack of defense is why he’s not in Tier 2.

Rocco Grimaldi:

If the biggest knock on Arvidsson is his size, then Grimaldi is basically Arvidsson on steroids. Well, the opposite of steroids. He’s a very small person, and is an even bigger liability on defense, especially against bigger and more physical teams.

Grimaldi was tied for fifth on the team with 10 goals, but four of them came in one game against the horrendous Red Wings. He also did not score a single point against Carolina all year, and therefore did not play in the playoff series against them.

Erik Haula:

An incredibly annoying player for opposing defenses, especially since he creates havoc in front of the net and wins tons of faceoffs. However, Haula easily could’ve scored five to ten more goals this year if he could actually finish at the net.

Duchene’s aforementioned lack of points are thanks, in part, to Haula flubbing or outright missing tons of passes or whiffing on an open net. While he’ll never be an elite player, Haula could jump up a tier if he can capitalize on those high-danger chances he’s so good at creating.

Ryan Johansen:

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Now don’t get me wrong, Johansen is not bad at all. But when a player has one of the biggest contracts on his team, he needs to play like it.

As an assistant captain, Johansen should have led from the front and created momentum, but instead looked demoralized and frustrated for much of the season. He was also the sixth-most penalized player on the team. The talent is still there (I think), but we really need to see a big step forward from Joey next season.

Luke Kunin:

Despite a slow start, Kunin made an impression towards the end of the Predators’ run. Most notably, he scored two goals in the Game 4 double-OT win against the Hurricanes, including the game-winner.

Kunin is a very solid player who can perform in big moments, though he does seem to lack that extra secret sauce that guys like Josi and Forsberg possess. I am looking forward to seeing more of him next year, and hopefully he can take the next step and put up more consistent numbers through the whole season.

Yakov Trenin:

A key piece of the brutal “Herd Line”, Trenin led the team with 94 hits. As one of the main reasons The Herd is such a problem for opposing teams, Trenin dominates the ice with his size and forechecking ability. He lacks the pure handles to really put up points, but The Herd didn’t make a name for themselves by scoring a lot.

None of them are amazing hockey players (yet): they are punishers who happen to wear skates. Trenin plays his role very well, and as The Herd develops, perhaps they can contribute as scorers, not just as enforcers.

Pekka Rinne:

This one hurts to write. Our beloved Rinne may have played his last game in a Predators sweater, and while he should be a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, it’s obvious he isn’t the same goaltender he was back in 2018 when he won the Vezina Trophy.

Rinne still makes a couple of his “how-in-the-world-did-he-stop-that” saves, but even he has acknowledged that the passing of the torch is underway, as Saros is clearly an emerging star in the NHL, and Rinne’s best days are far behind him.

Nick Cousins:

In case you haven’t realized, I’m not a fan of the guys Duchene played with for most of the year. Nick Cousins is just didn’t do it for me. He’s a hockey player. He isn’t fast or strong, and he doesn’t handle the puck with any real finesse.

Nashville Predators

What Cousins does do, however, is commit penalties. Cousins was the second-most penalized player on the Predators, and seeing as how the Predators were horrific on the penalty kill, Cousins’ sloppy play likely directly led to plenty of goals for opponents.

Mathieu Olivier:

An OG of The Herd Line, Olivier is a very physical player, which we love! However, his lack of savvy and inability to control his temper caused him to accrue 70 penalty minutes in just 30 games, which we don’t love. 70 minutes is…a lot.

Olivier did far more harm than good, and was eventually supplanted on The Herd Line, thankfully. Hopefully as he gains experience, he’ll focus a little less on blindly smashing into people and more on actually playing hockey.

Colton Sissons:

Let me say this: I actually like Colton Sissons. He is a perfectly fine hockey player who plays his role acceptably. But there is no flash to him, no upside to speak of. I am confident we’ve seen his absolute best performances, and while they’re not bad, they’re nothing to write home about (I say as I sit here, literally writing at my home, about it).

Sissons is at the top-end of this tier, but it would’ve felt wrong to put him next to guys like Kunin, Trenin, or Johansen in Tier 3 because he lacks the upside those other guys possess.

Matt Benning:

Look, I get that Benning is a bottom-line defenseman. But we have to ask ourselves: should we demand better than this?

Every time Benning was on the ice, my anxiety skyrocketed. Either he was going to fail to settle/clear the puck, or he was going to pass to an opposing player, or he was going to mishandle a puck in the neutral zone, or he was going to end up in the penalty box (he was the 4th-most penalized player on the roster). I get that he was a lowly 6th-round draft pick, but still, the Nashville defense needs better than Benning.

Dante Fabbro:

Dante Fabbro clearly needs time to develop and get up to NHL speed. However, we still saw flashes of what can be, and what can be might be pretty darn good.

Is Fabbro the next Josi? Probably not. Could he be a slightly bigger Ryan Ellis? Absolutely, especially since he has decent speed and above-average vision of the ice and passing lanes, just like Ellis. Another Ellis would be a welcome sight compared to Benning and the next two players in this tier…

Erik Gudbranson and Ben Harpur:

I’m putting these two together because I have the exact same complaints about both of them. They are both giant men that lose 50/50 opportunities on the boards, they don’t hit as hard as they should, they both lose often contain and fail to clear pucks, and they both are below-average passers.

I considered making a “Yuck” tier, and both Gudbranson and Harpur would’ve been right in the middle of it.

Mark Borowiecki:

“BoroCop” missed half the season with an upper-body injury, but frankly, the team didn’t miss him. He’s mean and hits hard, and that’s about it. He would often sacrifice going for a puck or left his position to hit someone, and it sometimes proved costly.

Borowiecki is a low-upside player who isn’t getting any younger, and frankly has no place in the lineup.

Brad Richardson:

The second-oldest player on the Predators roster, Richardson was actually the guy who scored the game-winner for the Coyotes in overtime of Game 4 last year to eliminate the Predators from the Stanley Cup Qualifiers.

I’ll try to bury my previous feelings about him by saying that he’s a fine veteran leader, I guess. Frankly, it’s difficult to know what kind of an effect he had in the locker room. Regarding actual play on the ice, Richardson likely saw more ice time than may have been initially planned due to COVID and injuries, and while he showed grit and toughness, his time in the NHL is nearing an end.