The Nashville Predators walked into the fifth round with two picks, but ultimately only made one, drafting center Philip Hemmyr at No. 138 overall.
Nashville initially held the No. 138 and No. 160 picks but eventually trade the latter to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a 2028 fifth-round pick. The Predators previously selected Wyatt Cullen (No. 10), Tommy Bleyl (No. 31), Dmitri Borichev (No. 70), Jakub Floris (No. 118) and Justin Graf (No. 118).
Hemmyr, 19, has played with IF Björklöven since 2021. In the past season, the Swedish forward played 27 games with the U20 Nationell club, scoring 19 goals and 44 points. With IF Björklöven's team in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second highest Swedish hockey league), he played 36 games where he scored six goals and 12 points, winning the league's championship and helping his team get promoted to the SHL.
His strong suit is his senses. A strong two-way forward, he's reliable both on and off the puck. His positioning helps gets him ahead of his opponents, finding soft spots on offense and opposing flaws on defense. While he is primarily a center, he can also play winger, proving to be an extremely reliable, versatile forward for the Predators. His skill extends beyond five-on-five hockey, playing a crucial role on his teams' power play and penalty killing units.
In terms of what he can be for Nashville, he is projected to be a bottom-six forward, with the upside of a middle-six staple. Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager Chris MacFarland is making it clear that the team's theme for this draft is playmaking, and Hemmyr only adds onto that. If given the time to develop and grow as a player, he could very easily become a steal for the Predators.
Some of the Predators best players come from Sweden, with Filip Forsberg, Mattias Ekholm and Viktor Arvidsson just to name a few, and with the addition of Hemmyr, that list continues to grow.
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