The verdict on Predators’ many new faces? Very little impact so far

By John Glennon

  It wasn’t a complete transformation the Predators underwent prior to this season, as most of the team’s key cogs – like Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen, Viktor Arvidsson, Matt Duchene, Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm – returned for 2021.

    But Preds general manager David Poile did add a number of new faces to the roster, in the hope of bettering a team that was bumped from last year’s postseason even before the “real” playoffs began.

    In a perfect world, the Preds’ new players would have had the benefit of a full training camp and a full regular season to show their worth. But the sports world is hardly perfect these days. That’s certainly the case in the NHL, which featured an abbreviated 2021 training camp and is now in the midst of a condensed 56-game schedule.

    That’s another way of saying it was especially important for the Preds’ new additions to make a quick impression this year.

    With nearly 30 percent of the NHL season complete following Thursday’s 3-0 loss to Columbus, however, we’ve seen very little impact from a half dozen Preds who were not in the organization last year: forwards Nick Cousins, Erik Haula, Luke Kunin and Brad Richardson, along with defensemen Matt Benning and Mark Boroviecki.

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Author: John GlennonMulti-media journalist with extensive expertise covering the NFL, NHL, professional soccer and more, including the Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators for The Tennessean with articles, videos and podcasts. Strengths include the ability to write quick, concise and thorough analysis, as well as the ability to uncover unique human-interest stories. In working as a reporter, John developed skills that extend beyond the sports journalism world. An efficient and effective communicator, John is confident, calm and productive under deadline pressure and knows the power of the written word. John brings to Broadway Sports a work ethic second to none, an intellectual hunger, and an ability to inform and entertain readers, viewers and listeners. Reach out directly to John at: