Nashville Predators are Blazing Hot: Four Unsung Heroes
As one of the NHL's hottest teams, the Preds have some unsung heroes to thank.
Yakov Trenin Found his Game When Win Streak Started
It's no mystery that Yakov Trenin's offensive surge over the past few weeks directly conincides with Nashville's stretch of winning nine of 11 games.
Trenin didn't score his first point of 2023-24 until the begging off all of this, the November 18 win over Chicago when he tallied a goal and an assist. Since then, he has gotten his season total up to six goals and two assists.
It's a contract year for Trenin. He will be a UFA in the offseason of 2024 and it remains very uncertain if he's in the long-term plans for Nashville. You would like to think he his, but it's still a business and it's unclear if General Manager Barry Trotz will be willing to give Trenin the pay raise he'll expect. Or the term for that matter.
If Trenin can keep chipping in valuable minutes to the Predators' bottom-six, then you like his chances of being invested in by the Nashville front office past 2024.
Trenin is a two-way player. He's third on the team in hits with 65 and extremely vital to the Predators' penalty kill which has shown steady improvement after being near the bottom of the league at one point. They went 4-for-4 on kills against one of the best power plays in the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Trenin was a big reason why.
Another stat that stands out for Trenin that's very positive is he has cut back big time on his penalty minutes. Only four penalty minutes after having 47 last season, and 46 the season before. Showing more discipline has been great from him.
Gus Nyquist Has Been Great as the Last Piece to Preds Top Line
In the busy 2023 offseason for the Nashville Predators, the pickup of Gustav Nyquist came with little fanfare. He was signed to two years at $3.185 AAV, and kind of went against the full on youth movement that fans thought was coming.
Then there was the speculation of what Nashville's top line would look like with Forsberg and O'Reilly being shoe-ins. After some tinkering in the lineup to open the season, Head Coach Andrew Brunette has stuck with Nyquist being on the top line with Forsberg and O'Reilly.
Nyquist was a 53-point scorer for the Columbus Blue Jackets in a full 82-game campaign in 2021-22, but suffered a setback last season playing in just 51 games and being sent to the Wild for only three games.
It's hard to imagine a top line veteran player being overlooked on the top line, but I do think Nyquist deserves more credit for giving the Predators a stable and productive top line.
Nashville's top line of Forsberg/O'Reilly/Nyquist is 11th among NHL forward lines in Expected Goals. They're coming up on 200 minutes of time on ice together, but there was also brief success with Juuso Parssinen being on the top line with Forsberg and O'Reilly, so it's always possible that when Cody Glass comes back that Brunette goes back to Parssinen at the top.
Either way, Nyquist has proven so far to be a valuable veteran to the lineup and is producing right around his most efficient point pace of his 12-year NHL career.
Jeremy Lauzon Having a Career Year & Shown a lot of Improvement
Sorting out the Predators' defensive corps was a difficult task going into the season. Trying to figure out who was going to be the odd man out after Luke Schenn was brought in was a topic of discussion.
Surprisingly, Jeremy Lauzon has appeared in every game for the Predators this season. With Tyson Barrie being on the trade block and Alexandre Carrier remaning out with injury, Lauzon should keep getting the starts while averaging over 17 minutes per game.
Lauzon just plays a commendable stye of hockey. Lays his body in the path of shots, puts out tone-setting hits, and steps up for teammates when needed to be that pest to deal with.
With 78 hits, Lauzon ranks 5th in the NHL in that category, and really his only downside is taking the occasional bad penalty. Many of his penalty minutes come from fighting majors, and he really has kept his inexcusable sloppy penalties to a minimum. I've seen improvement in that area from him.
Lauzon also has 35 blocked shots which is one pace to be a new career high for him. And he's still signed at a bargain price of $2M AAV for another two more years after this one.
Sherwood has Battled to Become an Everyday NHL Starter
When Kiefer Sherwood first started playing games for the Predators to begin in 2022-23 at the Global Series, you couldn't have expected him to become a regular producer just one season later.
Sherwood was signed by former general manager David Poile to a minimal NHL contract of $750,000 in the offseason of 2022. It didn't get much publicity at the time, and if anything, was more of a move for the Milwaukee Admirals. But Sherwood went on to score the first goal for the Predators in 2022-23, and then got sent down to the minors shortly thereafter before getting called back up for good in February.
Since then, Sherwood hasn't really looked back. He plays so hard and doesn't take shifts off. And actually has a pretty wicked shot when he gets loose. He has speed to go along with physicality.
Sherwood has 11 points in all 26 games for Nashville so far, and will easily crush his career high for points in a season. He has never played more than 50 games in a season, which was his rookie year in 2018-19 as an undrafted player.
While dealing with the injuries to Tommy Novak and Cody Glass, Sherwood has stepped up. The team has gone with 11 forwards and seven defensemen on some nights in the last couple of weeks and Sherwood has provided valuable minutes, including eight hits against the Lightning in his last game.
The Predators have a great chance to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2024, and having these types of players just mentioned allows a team to survive the 82-game grind even when the significant injuries happen to the core of the lineup.