Nashville Predators: Most Overrated and Underrated Player for 2023

The Nashville Predators have made some pretty big moves this offseason. Moving on from Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene and then bringing in Ryan O’Reilly are probably the three biggest changes up to this point.

With the organization moving on from the likes of Johansen and Duchene, my outlook on the most overrated player in the current Nashville Predators organization has changed slightly.

If you would have asked me a month ago, the player of most overrated would have been a fight between these either Johansen or Duchene.

The new leadership of Barry Trotz and Andrew Brunette as head coach have already seemed to make a very clear statement, either play to the expectations of your contract or find somewhere else to play.

Now as for underrated, a lot of Nashville Predators players are underrated due to the market they play in. If you put Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg, or Colton Sissons in a hotter hockey market, they would not be near as underrated as they are by playing here in Smashville.

Let’s jump right into who are the most overrated and underrated players in a Nashville Predators today, with the regular season opener of 2023-24 still a couple months away.

Nashville Predators Most Overrated – #3 Jeremy Lauzon

The way this Nashville Predators roster looks I would have to say that Jeremy Lauzon is the most overrated as we head into 2023-24.

Signing a four year/$8 million, $2 million AAV, contract with the Predators on June 13, 2022, Lauzon was expected to increase his level of play with this organization. That just has not happened on a team that relies as heavily on its back end as the Nashville Predators.

Playing in 67 games during the 2022-23 season, Lauzon had three goals and nine assists, averaging just 0.17 points per game. He also managed to amass a total of 66 penalty minutes.

When you are defensemen that starts right at 70 percent of your shifts in the defensive zone, it is imperative that you stay out of the box in order to be on the ice when your team uses, and needs, you the most.

Looking at Lauzon’s Corsi, for every 60 minutes that he was on the ice the opposing team took 22.4 shots more than what the Predators were able to.

While Lauzon is more of a defensive zone defenseman, this number needs to come down in order to allow the Predators the opportunity to find the win column more often.

While Lauzon did have 250 hits last season, he also had just 75 blocked shots, three takeaways, and 23 giveaways. To his credit, he was good for ninth in the NHL in hits, while slightly cutting down on his total penalty minutes from the previous season.

Lauzon’s overall level of play needs to increase if he wants to finish out his current contract in a Predators sweater, and more importantly get a starting spot out of this upcoming training camp after the free agency addition of Luke Schenn, and Dante Fabbro also in the mix.

Nashville Predators Most Underrated – #82 Thomas Novak

After what Thomas Novak did last season, especially late down the stretch as the Predators made an improbable push for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it is safe to say if he continues that caliber of on-ice ability, he will not be labeled as underrated for long.

Playing in just 51 games for the Predators during 2022-23, Novak had 17 goals and 26 assists after not making his season debut until December 19 in an impressive win over the Edmonton Oilers where he notched an assist.

To put it in perspective, Novak was third on the team in scoring while only playing in just over half of the games. Pretty incredible accomplishment.

Now to nitpick a little, Novak did have the second-lowest faceoff win percentage among all Predators taking at least 100 faceoffs. However, if he can find out a way to win more draws while continuing to play at the level he did last season, he will have the ability to be a top-six center on a lot of NHL rosters.

To make it even more impressive, Novak did all of this while only averaging 14:39 time on ice per game and only took four minor penalties. His eight penalty minutes were the lowest on the team among all players who played at least 40 games.

Only taking 93 shots on goals, Novak also led the team in shooting percentage among players who took at least 50 shots with a highly impressive 18.3 percent.

Novak may not be considered underrated for too much longer and isn’t among Nashville circles, but around the broad NHL landscape, he is still vastly overlooked.