Nashville Predators 2023 Training Camp Spotlight: Colton Sissons

One of the elder statesman remaining for the Nashville Predators is Colton Sissons, who is entering his 10th NHL season and looking to be the veteran presence for the younger forwards.

Only Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi have played more games for the Nashville Predators on this current roster. Sissons has 537 games for Nashville, with Forsberg having 616 games and Josi leading the way with 827 games played.

What does the road ahead look like for Sissons, who has played his entire NHL career with Nashville as a former 2nd round pick in 2012.

2022-23 Season Review for Sissons

Sissons tied his single season career high in points with 30 while playing in all 82 games for the Predators. The season before he missed just three regular season games. So he has come through recently as reliable and durable.

We all know Sissons for his defensive ability as a forward, and for doing all of the important things that get overlooked in the box score. Sissons retained another strong year in the faceoff circle winning 53.5 percent of his faceoff, which is right at his career average.

Sissons also got a couple votes for the Selke Trophy for best defensive forward while managing to block 72 shots, also a personal career best for Sissons.

I just think Sissons is easily forgotten and underrated because he plays in the bottom six and doesn’t score a lot of goals. He did put up 12 goals in 2022-23, second best in his career.

So the consensus here is Sissons didn’t show any signs of regressing from being a vital veteran presence for your bottom six, and if anything, you can argue he showed signs finding a little more offense with the right linemates.

Season Outlook for 2023-24

Going into training camp Sissons will look to find his role as a bottom six center, and I would expect him to be on the fourth line. That’s not a knock on Sissons, but more or less just the situation of having so many centers.

Sissons can be a very quality fourth line center that will play defense, win faceoffs and be a stabilizer on what’s going to be an inexperienced fourth line that’s going to need fine-tuning, especially in the early going.

Looking at Sissons’ possible linemates, we could see a lot of switching in and out here. To open the season you might see Denis Gurianov or Kiefer Sherwood. Training camp position battles will decide this lineup choice.

Coming up on age 30, Sissons has likely already hit his peak in terms of offensive production, and that’s fine. His value is all in his defense and reliability.

If Sissons can tally another 10 to 15 goals while maintaining his defensive production as a valuable penalty killer, then you’re very pleased with that.

Sissons has three more years left on his current contract that was signed way back in 2019.

Biggest Strength & Weakness for Sissons

The biggest strength for Sissons is his reliability. I don’t ever really have to worry about the performance Sissons is going to turn in. I know he’s going to be there to do the dirty work, push every second while he’s on the ice to win every shift, and his intangibles are going to be of high value for the younger forwards around him.

Sissons can also be counted on to not shrink in critical moments by making costly and unforced errors. That falls into the intangibles department.

As for his most glaring weakness, it’s just the offensive element to his game never really caught up to the speed of today’s NHL. He’s never going to be top-six caliber, but again, you can live with that. Every player has a role to play, and Sissons knows his.

Every goal Sissons may score above 10 goals will be bonus for the Nashville Predators. You see an offensive uptick from Sissons, then that means the system as a whole is firing on all cylinders and a lot of players are going to break out for huge scoring numbers.