If you are a Stanley Cup contender, which the Nashville Predators are aiming to be in 2024-25, you have to have immense talent in your top six on offense and top four on defense. But very few teams go far in the playoffs without depth guys who do the hard and dirty work and can play alongside players with any skillset, and Mark Jankowski fits that mold.
Jankowski has had far from the most stable experience since he has joined the Predators, frequently splitting time between Nashville and AHL Milwaukee in those past two years. He even got waived right before the 2023-24 season started, but you would not know that if you only watched the latter half of last year.
Joining the Predators right before the start of their 18-game point streak, Jankowski did not look back, putting together one of the most productive stretches in his career. He absolutely deserves to be in Nashville to start the 2024-25 season and should not have his spot revoked until he proves otherwise.
Jankowski is a reliable, two-way depth forward for Nashville Predators
Jankowski played in 32 regular season games for the Predators in 2023-24, all but two of which came on February 13 and after. He notched 15 points - seven goals and eight assists - in those games, and despite the sample size, that is the highest points per game pace he has registered in his career.
Jankowski played like it too, doing a lot of work offensively around the net, and metrics show that his offensive game took a big jump from his usual standards. But you cannot forget about his impact defensively, and when you combine everything he did last year, he was actually a pretty critical player.
A guy like Jankowski might fly under the radar from a holistic standpoint, but the Predators absolutely felt his contributions during their historic point streak. At one point, the team had gotten 38 out of 44 possible points in the standings with him in the lineup, and that result was not just a little coincidence.
He was playing really good hockey last year, and considering the type of player he is - one who works hard and accepts his role whether he is in the NHL or AHL - there is no doubt he had a positive impact on the Predators' culture. He truly earned the reputation of someone who is a glue guy, and you can never have enough of those in your organization.
Surprisingly, Jankowski finished only behind Filip Forsberg in Expected Goals Per 60 Minutes on the Predators last season. Just think about that efficiency from Jankowski, being ahead of such players as Ryan O'Reilly, Gus Nyquist and Roman Josi.
Jankowski's role is bottom-six unless injuries pile up
Now despite Jankowski having arguably his best season in 2023-24, let's not lie to ourselves and say he is going to become a real difference maker on offense. He is going to stay in the bottom six with the third line realistically being his highest possible lineup spot, and that is where he played almost all of last year.
Jankowski played on the wing alongside Tommy Novak and Luke Evangelista, and as a two-way depth guy, he fit well alongside two other inexperienced guys with more flashy offensive skill. The Predators have at least a slight blueprint as to how to get the most out of Jankowski, and they should not mess with it much at all.
Even though Novak is likely to move to the top six, Jankowski and Evangelista should be good to stay where they are, with Parssinen centering them. Even though Parssinen plays a much more physical game than Novak, that still fits well with Jankowski and Evangelista, each of whom are not very physical at all and have different skillsets.
And because of his lack of physicality, I do not love the idea of Jankowski playing on the fourth line, which should be the team's identity line. It is not a requirement that they stay as the primarily bruising trio that they are, but it has worked out well for the Predators, and they should keep it going since they can.
Either way, Jankowski will be a bottom six guy, and he probably will not average a point every other game like last year, but that is okay. He makes his living being able to do multiple things on the ice for the Predators, and assuming he can keep his style of play while also keeping the point pace of a traditional depth guy, he will more than make his contributions.