Risers and Fallers in Nashville Predators Stock Report Heading into 2023

Plummeting ⇓

A dramatic shift for Mikael Granlund from the start of the season after being re-signed last minute during the 2021 offseason to a four-year, $5M deal. After his 53 assists last season, he looked like the bargain of the decade for the Nashville Predators front office.

To be clear, Granlund is still proving to be an affective puck distributor with 17 assists, but his lack of goal production and shooting capabilities is concerning. It’s probably the main reason why he was recently relegated to the bottom-six in favor of Tommy Novak and Cody Glass.

Granlund’s once successive role of centering Filip Forsberg and Matt Duchene has fallen on hard times. According to MoneyPuck, the Forsberg/Granlund/Duchene line is one of the worst forward lines in producing goals.

Forsberg has 11 goals and Duchene has ten goals, while Granlund has just four. Furthermore, Granlund’s shooting percentage is below average at 9.3 while only producing a shade over one shot on goal per game with 43 in 33 games.

A top-six center has to give you more than the pedestrian offensive numbers Granlund has produced. For the Predators to wake up from their goal scoring drought that has lasted all season, Granlund has to kick it up a notch and be more aggressive when attacking offensively.

Granlund is a possible trade option to shop if the Predators continue to fall out of the postseason race. Keep that on your radar.