The Nashville Predators signed Gustav Nyquist to a two-year contract last offseason, and at the time, he was not thought to be much more than a stopgap for the forward core. Throughout much of his career, he has been a second-line guy, and with him in his mid-30's, expectations for him were nothing more than that at all.
What followed in the 2023-24 season was nothing that even Nyquist himself probably imagined in his wildest dreams. There are career years, which normally happen in athletes' prime ages, but he took it to a whole other level at age 34.
Nyquist absolutely exploded, blowing his previous point totals out of the water with 75 points in 81 games. A guy who was supposed to be mainly a depth player turned into one of the more crucial contributors on the Predators, and in all honesty, he was the x-factor on arguably their most successful forward line in team history.
Nyquist was a superb facilitator for Predators last season
As successful as the line of Filip Forsberg, Ryan O'Reilly, and Nyquist himself was last year, we have to remember that they did not start out together. It was over two weeks after it started before they got their opportunity as a trio, and you could easily tell the difference once it actually happened.
The three of them had unbelievable chemistry all year long, and as far as Nyquist himself, it was not like Forsberg and O'Reilly were just carrying him. Assists like the one he had in the video down below were frequently on display and made them a treat to watch night in and night out.
Being primarily a distributor was essentially Nyquist's role on the top line, as he racked up an eye opening 52 assists on the year. He did not do anything he had not previously done in the goal scoring department, but that was totally fine, that has never been his natural game and clearly did not need to be.
It should also be noted that it was not until November that Nyquist really turned it on, as only by then had he settled on the aforementioned top line. His main contributions were maybe even more than a point per game, which is absolutely crazy considering his career up to that point.
If there was an award for most improved player in the league, surely Nyquist would have been among the finalists. Doing what he did at his age is unheard of really in any sport, and huge credit has to be given to Barry Trotz for a tremendous value signing, and Andrew Brunette for making the pieces work on the top line.
Nyquist faces even bigger challenge of replicating last year's success
Predators fans have to feel good that going into the 2024-25 season, they will have a line that they have rarely had. They have almost never gotten big production from a forward line, and for them to stay together almost all season like they did showed that they truly had something special.
Now for Nyquist, it is certainly fair to have higher expectations than last year, but they must be tempered to a certain extent. The simple reason is that career years for anyone in any sport rarely if ever repeat, and in Nyquist's case, it was more than just a career year.
You have to expect that with his overall track record and his current age of 35, he is going to come back down to earth at least a little bit. Trotz has made moves so that the Predators are not in trouble at all if that happens, but it does not mean he should not get the opportunity to do it all over again.
The evidence, and not hypotheticals, that we have show that Forsberg, O'Reilly, and Nyquist were extremely successful together. Until it is proven that their chemistry is just not the same as it was in 2023-24, they should be put back together on the top line.
My honest prediction is that Nyquist gets the opportunity to start on the top line, but eventually gets moved back to the second. And it is nothing personal against him, it is just the reality that almost nobody repeats crazy career years, and if he did, that would be yet another expectation blown out of the water.
And even if he does get bumped back a line, he still should be totally fine in that situation, and be expected to do good things for the top six. My prediction for Nyquist in 2024-25 is 21 goals and 42 assists, which would be a step back from last year, but not a crazy one, and he will still be important as the Predators look to contend for a Stanley Cup.