Nashville Predators: Four Things to Watch For over Final 20 Games
By Chad Minton
#3: The Future of the Nashville Predators is NOW
This is the one everyone is most excited about; watching the young players on this team get increased roles and hopefully bring a new brand of hockey to Smashville.
No one is raising the excitement level more right now than Luke Evangelista, the former 2nd-round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft is got his NHL call-up way sooner than expected. Not because he wasn’t deserving, but just because this large of a sell-off was something that David Poile seemed like he would never fully commit to.
In just his fourth NHL game, Evangelista scored two goals and registered six shots on net to fuel a Predators third period comeback against Vancouver.
Evangelista is also getting the opportunity with the injuries to Forsberg, Johansen and Parssinen. Once Forsberg returns, if he does at all, then we’ll see if Evangelista stick around the NHL lineup or goes back to Milwaukee.
It doesn’t stop at Evangelista, however. Of course the hope is that Parssinen gets back into the lineup and continues what has been an outstanding rookie campaign with 23 points in 42 games. He should be close to returning, so watching how he performs to close out the regular season will be under the spotlight.
Cody Glass and Tommy Novak shouldn’t be overlooked in all of this, either. They’ve made it clear they’re here to stay on the NHL level, so let’s see if they finish out the season on a strong note. They’ve gotten better and better as the season has gone on.
And then you have Philip Tomasino. Another player that is a major part of the future and how the “reset” goes. A lot of us can live with missing the playoffs if we’re seeing Tomasino and the other previously mentioned are being put in position to continue their development into next season.
Tomasino has six points in 11 games since getting the call-up after the Forsberg injury.