Who’s Not Hot with the Nashville Predators at Midway Point of Season
Tanner Jeannot is coming of a 2021-2022 season that many thought he deserved the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year. He has not lived up to the hype that surrounded him last season through the first half of this season.
Jeannot burst onto the scene in 2021-22 for the Nashville Predators with 24 goals and 17 assists in 81 games. It’s been a far cry from that through his 42 games this season. Just three goals and six assists. His point-per-game average has decreased considerably.
Jeannot has also accumulated 55 penalty minutes. Known for his physicality and not being afraid to back down from a fight, Jeannot has seven fighting majors. With the seven fights that leaves him with 20 minutes of minor penalties.
On the good side of things, Jeannot is a +2 in the +/- column. Given his ability to get in hard on the forecheck and be relentless on the puck it is very possible that he turns his season around during the last half. But, based off how the first half of the season went, he deserves to be on the “Not Hot List”.
Dante Fabbro, a 24-year-old defenseman, has not played well this season and has been in the rumor mill for a possible trade piece for this struggling Nashville Predators team.
Having played in 39 of 42 games, Fabbro has one goal and seven assists. Being on pace for 16 points, based on 68 games played, puts him eight points behind his 24-point mark from one season ago.
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Fabbro is also on pace, with 18 giveaways and eight takeaways, to have the highest number of giveaways and the lowest number of takeaways in the three seasons where he has played over 60 games.
One of the only two good statistics Fabbro has this season is his +/- and his expected goals for and expected goals against while he has been on the ice. In the +/- column, Fabbro is a +3. There have been 25.4 expected goals for the Predators and 23.9 expected goals against while Fabbro has been on the ice.
While it is unknown what the future holds for Fabbro and this organization, if he wants to be a Nashville Predator after March 3, 2023, his on ice production needs to increase. Even if it does, he’s an easy trade piece to peg.
Ryan Johansen had better than expected last season posting 26 goals and 37 assists through 79 games. This gave Johansen an average of .8 points per game. That number is very respectable.
However, Johansen has not produced anywhere close to the same level this year. With nine goals and 11 assists, Johansen is currently on pace for 0.49 points per game this season.
Johansen’s -9 in the +/- column already sets a mark for the worst +/- of his career. The last time Johansen was a -6 or higher was with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2014 – 2015.
Penalties has also been an unexpected problem for Johansen. His 32 penalty minutes put him on pace for the second-most throughout his 12-year NHL career. With no fighting majors to his name, that is a rather significant amount of penalty minutes for a veteran player.
Looking at all of Johansen’s statistics, the only one that sticks out on a positive note is his face off win percentage. Johansen has won 59.2% of his faceoff’s this season. He currently ranks sixth in the faceoff circle through the first half.
Jeremy Lauzon is definitely not known for his offensive ability. Even with that he has been on a little bit of a heater as of late scoring three goals and having an assist since December 31 against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Even this heater that Lauzon finds himself on is not enough to take him off of the “Not Hot List”.
Lauzon has played 34 games and has three goals and three assists. The team isn’t leaning on him for offense, so whatever he brings is kind of bonus.
Known for his physicality, Lauzon has answered the call on five occasions in the first half, dropping the gloves and fighting for this Nashville Predators team. With those fights taken out of the equation, Lauzon has 24 penalty minutes for non-fighting penalties.
Lauzon’s total of 49 penalty minutes puts him on pace to surpass his career high of penalty minutes.
When you average a minor penalty once every three games and average such a low amount of offensive output, it’s a bad combination. That is not a method for success at the NHL level.
If this Nashville Predators team is going to be successful over the course of the entire 82 game NHL Regular season, Lauzon is one of several players that needs to play to a higher standard.
That finishes up “Who’s Not Hot” in Smashville for the first half of the season. We will take a look at this again when we get past the third quarter of the regular season to see who needs to play better to make the final push for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Until then, lets see if these four players can up the ante and help this struggling Nashville Predators team get some more pucks in the back of the net and pile some W’s in the win column.
Up next as the second half rolls on, the Nashville Predators will take on one of the Western Conference’s current wildcard holders; the Calgary Flames.