Nashville Predators Who’s Hot List: 2023 Offseason Edition
#59 Roman Josi
The Captain of the Nashville Predators, Roman Josi, has consistently been on the Who’s Hot List throughout the season. Even though he missed the last quarter of the season due to concussion symptoms, his play throughout the first three quarters to give him a spot on the season ending Who’s Hot List.
Josi dressed in 67 games for the Predators and led the team in points with 59, including 18 goals and 41 assists. Though the captain did not put up numbers like he did last season, which would have been an incredible feat, he still scored at almost a point per game rate through the time he was in the lineup.
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Averaging 25:10 on ice per night, Josi led all other players on the roster by four minutes. He was relied upon heavily, especially in the closing minutes of the game, due to the number of close games that the Predators found themselves playing in.
Josi also led the team in Power Play goals and assists.
It is safe to say that if the Predators had their captain in the lineup for the last fifteen games of the season, they would still probably be playing hockey right now and in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the ninth consecutive season.
#9 Filip Forsberg
Filip Forsberg, like Josi, struggled with injury this season. Playing in only 50 games, missing the last 32 after being hit hard into the boards, hitting his head on the ice, and having concussion symptoms for the remainder of the season, Forsberg was a pivotal part to the lineup in the games that he was in.
Forsberg has 19 goals and 23 assists in the just over half season that he was able to play. Four of those goals and nine of his assists came on the man-advantage.
Forsberg’s absence from the team was felt tremendously on the power play and on the offensive capabilities of the team as a whole.
Averaging 17:28 time on ice per game, Forsberg ranked third on the team in that category among all forwards, only trailing teammate Matt Duchene and former Nashville Predator Mikael Granlund.
The Nashville Predators are looking forward to the 2023-24 season and getting Forsberg back on the ice to help improve their goals for record. This season, the Predators ranked 27th in the league in goals with 229 goals.
Now that we have looked at two veteran players on this team, there are two newer faces that I feel played good enough in their time with the Nashville Predators to make this list as well.
#82 Thomas Novak
The first newer face to the team that we will look at is Thomas Novak. Anyone that followed the Nashville Predators this season should not be surprised to see his name on this list as he was phenomenal in his 51 games in the NHL this season.
After playing in his first game of the season with the Predators on December 19th, Novak made sure that he would not get sent back to Milwaukee. Novak ranked third on the team in points and his shot percentage was nearly 5% greater than the second shot percentage, among players recording at least 50 shots on goal, on the team with an astounding 18.3%.
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Posting 17 goals and 26 assists, Novak showed the coaching staff that he has what it takes to be a top-six forward in the NHL. Add his offensive ability with the fact that he only committed four minor penalties throughout his time with the Predators, there is no doubt that there will be a spot for Novak on the roster next season.
If it were not for players like Novak that stepped up and answered the call, the Nashville Predators would have been eliminated from playoff contention long before they finally were 80 games in.
#44 Kiefer Sherwood
The final spot on the 2022-23 end of season Hot List goes to Kiefer Sherwood. Playing in five games in the first month of play, Sherwood had one goal and one assist before being sent down to Milwaukee.
Sherwood got his second opportunity to play for the Predators on February 23rd after the Predators began to struggle with injuries. After getting called up this time, Sherwood would not get sent back to Milwaukee the remainder of the season.
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Although he did not show up on the scorecard as much as other players did, if you watched his style of play, he was one of the most aggressive players on the forecheck night in and night out.
Sherwood did find the back of the net on seven occasions and added six assists to his stats as well.
Scoring two goals in the final game of the season, Sherwood went down as the player scoring the first and last goal of the season for the Nashville Predators. The future for Sherwood is bright and I expect to see him in a Predators sweater more in the future.