Nashville Predators: Piping Hot Forward Line Projections for 2023-24
Line 1: Filip Forsberg — Ryan O’Reilly — Luke Evangelista
Everyone knows that Forsberg and O’Reilly are essentially locks on the top line. Forsberg is the only veteran forward that is returning on this team, and O’Reilly is the only top-six center that has played in the league for more than one full season.
The final spot is wide open in comparison, but the Predators should give it to Evangelista. I could easily see it being Gustav Nyquist, but Evanglista is the better choice for a few reasons.
First of all, Evangelista earned it after the way he played on the team towards the end of last year. His combination of talent and knowing what to do with the puck was very fun to watch, and it helped him put up an impressive seven goals and eight assists in the first 24 games of his career.
Evangelista was also consistent with how he made his presence felt, as he really did not have any off nights. It earned him a 16:34 average time and anyone who ever watched the Predators under John Hynes knows that you really had to earn that as a rookie.
Evangelista absolutely deserves the chance to play alongside two gifted and experienced guys in Forsberg and O’Reilly, and that would benefit the team more than putting Nyquist there. If the Predators brought in more veterans to get the most out of the youth, they need to have a balance of youth and veterans on their lines.
Young guys benefit from playing with more tenured guys because it helps them learn the game at the highest level, and masks their mistakes more than if they did not have that support. Forsberg does not need Nyquist playing alongside him or vice versa, but the less experienced guys could use one of them as line-mates.
Line 2: Philip Tomasino — Cody Glass — Gustav Nyquist
Tomasino and Glass played together towards the end of last year, and they absolutely should continue as line-mates. They flashed signs of great chemistry alongside one another, and both have the abilities to make them mesh well.
Number one, they are both very fast and have lots of skill when it comes to shooting and distributing the puck. The pace at which both could move the puck both up and down and across the ice could be an absolute headache for opposing teams, as they have showcased in their small sample size together.
Aside from that, they still complement each other quite well, as Tomasino is a pure playmaker, and Glass has shown net-front abilities in his young career. If they can truly leverage those strengths over time, they might end up being unstoppable.
The third spot should go to Nyquist, which would be consistent with the theme of mixing the veterans and youth to get the most of the youth.
Nyquist has also shown speed throughout his career, and who knows if that will sustain as he goes farther into his thirties, but his familiarity with that kind of game makes him a good fit for this line.
The second line is one that I anticipate having a lot of questions surrounding it, as there were so many moving parts in the offseason and it will be tough to decide who should be in what exact spot. The unfortunate thing is that there is just not enough room in the top six to fit all of the rising youth, even if some of them really deserve it.
Tomasino and Glass have played together and are a legitimately good fit for each other, and both play the game that is consistent with Head Coach Andrew Brunette’s preferred style. He should not overthink it.
Line 3: Juuso Parssinen — Tommy Novak — Denis Gurianov
This line is one where two of the three guys — Parssinen and Novak — are being placed in an unfair spot.
To be quite frank, Novak being placed on the third line seems like a slap in the face, as he played very well last year and is not going to get the top-six opportunity that many including myself think he deserves.
Even if Novak gets top-six time at several points throughout the year, he will have to battle with Cody Glass, and that is a battle that at least in the long term, Glass should win.
Parssinen’s case is less cut and dry, as his rookie season was less consistent than Novak’s, mainly due to an injury that shelved him for almost two months. That being said, his clear natural position is at center, so playing on the wing is far from ideal for him.
As tough as it is for the two guys in question, the Predators certainly will not complain about that being their third line. Not only do they get the luxury of two of their more promising young players in the bottom-six, but every player on this line has strengths that complement each other.
Parssinen is a forechecking machine and does so much hard work right in front of the net as well as behind it.
Novak is dangerous when he gets the puck on his stick in front of the net as well as having a pretty nice shot, so those two could get some nice goals as a result of simply outworking the opposition.
Gurianov was just signed, and has yet to truly harness his strengths at the NHL level. But with Novak and Parssinen being such effective players down low, it would open things up for Gurianov to really focus on his speed and powerful shot, giving him as good of an opportunity as he could want to make the most of his game.
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Another thing that was challenging about this line was that Parssinen and Gurianov are both left-handed, but Parssinen would make more sense playing on the left side. He can forecheck effectively on either wing, but the nature of the slap-shot would make Gurianov a better fit on the right side.
Line 4: Kiefer Sherwood — Colton Sissons — Yakov Trenin
As the top line was with two of its three players, two of the guys here — Sissons and Trenin — will obviously be on the fourth line.
Sissons has been a mainstay as a bottom-six center, and is someone who just knows his role and is content with it. There seems to be that mutually beneficial feeling between him and the Predators, and at this point there is a legitimate chance that he finishes out his long-term contract that was considered an anomaly at the time of signing.
Trenin is also a clear bottom-six forward, and he too knows that his role is to be a physical presence for the team. Who knows how much longer he will be here, as his contract only has one more year, but he is still around for now and will play in the spot where he clearly belongs.
People might debate who the other spot should belong to, but I clearly think it should be Sherwood. His presence at the beginning of last year was scorned by many fans, as he was supposedly taking a spot from Tomasino despite having nowhere near the talent or future of Tomasino.
However, towards the end of last year, Sherwood was objectively playing well with the opportunity he had. He is one of those players to whom the word “energy” really applies, and the effort he made on a nightly basis was seen and rewarded.
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And it is not like he was playing in an insignificant role, he was on a line with Novak and Evangelista for most of the stretch to end the year. He was actually contributing too, showing that he is someone who is at least a bottom-six caliber player.
There are other bottom six candidates such as Mark Jankowski, Cole Smith, and Michael McCarron who are very good rotational players and will probably see some games this coming year. But Sherwood is someone who really caught my eye as well as several others, so I would like to see him get that final spot.