The NHL has forgone its usual All Star Game festivities in favor of the 4 Nations Face-Off which is currently happening..
Now this is fine, All Star Games are basically non-competitive games of 3 on 3 fluff. However, one of the fun things about All Star weekend is the NHL Skills Competition. Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, Accuracy, Shootout Challenge, all of them are actually pretty compelling to watch.
We're missing them this year, but we can still figure out who on the Nashville Predators who is the top dog in some of the special skills categories that are typically a part of the All Star Skills Competition.
Now obviously there aren't too many ways to quantify stickhandling, passing, one timers, and the obstacle course, but there are still more than a few categories to go over.
Fastest Skater - Steven Stamkos
Despite being a player who has had suffered a meniscus surgery, a broken leg, abdominal core muscle surgery, and being 35 years old, Stamkos can still scoot. He's reached the highest speed of any Predators skater, and the 5th fastest of any skater this year.
In the overtime session of a November 11th game against Colorado, Stamkos reached an absurd 24.21 mph. That's faster than some speed limits. He could get a ticket in a school zone! His speed is in the 90th percentile for the league.
Hardest Shot - Filip Forsberg
The fact that Forsberg can rip the the puck, something we all know. This year he's got the fastest shot for the Predators this season.
In the 2nd period against the Vancouver Canucks Forsberg uncorked a rocket at 96.32 miles per hour. He didn't score on the shot, but it still remains the fastest that the Predators have clocked this season.
Shooting Accuracy - Fedor Svechkov
So this comes with a small caveat of the player has to have played at least 20 games with the Predators, and still be on the team. So sorry to Juuso Pärssinen but you're disqualified. He was shooting at 18.2% accuracy, with 2 goals on 11 shots. Maybe if he had taken more he wouldn't have gotten himself traded.
Next down the list and our defacto champion is Fedor Svechkov. He's been showing out impressively since becoming a regular part of the lineup. Through 25 games he's scored 6 goals, on 36 shots. That translates to 16.7%.
Still early in his Predators career, Svechkov has been selective with his shot taking. He's going to evolve and probably take more shots and see his shooting percentage go down, but so far he's proving to be a sharp shooter.
Also of note, Steven Stamkos is just below Svech, with 17 goals on 114 shots through 54 games. That puts him at a shooting percentage of 14.9%. Interestingly enough, this is the 4th lowest of his career, so let's call this a mid-season award.
Shootout Challenge - Juuse Saros, Gustav Nyquist, Ryan O'Reilly, Steven Stamkos
Easy here, as the Predators have incredibly only been to one shootout so far this season. They won, with Saros stopping 1 out of 2 shots, but Nyquist, O'Reilly, and Stamkos all converting on their attempts.
So if you're keeping track of the skills performers, pay close attention to Steven Stamkos the rest of this year, because he's doing some pretty amazing things out there.