The Nashville Predators are looking to forward Gustav Nyquist to play a key role in their top six, signing him to a two-year contract with an AAV of $3,185,000. Barry Trotz has certainly had a busy first day officially on the job as Nashville’s general manager, although the work began well before July 1. Over the course of the last week, Nashville has parted ways with top-six forwards Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene, so the addition of Nyquist makes sense from both a hockey and leadership perspective. Nyquist most recently spent a very limited amount of time in Minnesota after being traded while injured by the Columbus Blue Jackets. Nyquist only suited up for two regular-season games and played in all six of the Wild’s playoff matchups against the Dallas Stars.
Nashville is getting an incredibly consistent middle-six forward that has produced 40 points in eight NHL campaigns, not to mention that Nyquist may be one of the most underrated penalty killers in the league, scoring seven shorthanded goals in the last three seasons with Columbus. While Nyquist was able to play in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs after recovering from a shoulder injury sustained in Columbus, it’s worth noting that Nyquist has a history of upper-body injuries of late. An upper-body injury prevented Nyquist from playing in the 56-game 2021 NHL season. At the end of the day, the only thing that may keep Nyquist from finding success in Nashville is being sidelined due to injury, which is a possibility for the 32-year-old winger. All-in-all, Nashville got a player with a history of being incredibly consistent at a reasonable cap hit, and Nyquist feels like exactly the kind of player that Smashville could learn to love in relatively short order.
