Nashville Predators: Don’t underestimate a motivated Mikael Granlund

Granlund will surely play motivated for the Nashville Predators in 2021.

Mikael Granlund could not have become a free agent at a worse possible time.

The ninth overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft, Granlund became a fixture of the Minnesota Wild’s middle lines before being traded to the Nashville Predators for Kevin Fiala at the 2019 trade deadline.

Sidebar: Not to add insult to injury, but Fiala actually had a pretty good season with the Wild in 2019-20 – scoring 23 goals and 31 assists for his first 50-plus point campaign as a pro. Assuming everything remains copasetic, he’s expected to be a top-line guy next to Marcus Johansson.

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Though the Oulu, Finland native initially struggled to recapture the 68 points per season he averaged from 2016-18 during his initial partial season with the Predators, scoring only one goal in 16 games, Granlund really came into his own when the team had a switch at head coach from Peter Laviolette to John Hynes. Finally freed up to play a bit looser, Granlund scored nine of his 17 goals over the team’s final 23 games, made 18 percent of his shots on goal, and averaged his highest ATOI as a pro at 19:26. Granted, he did finish out the season with a 10 game goalless streak if you include the playoffs, but ultimately, his final 23 games with the Predators had to be considered a positive end to an otherwise ugly tenure.

Still, even with Hynes seemingly figuring out the best way to utilize the supremely talented center/winger as a do-it-all offensive weapon, that wasn’t enough to convince Granlund that Nashville was the ideal place to set down his roots long-term, as the two parties effectively agreed to an amicable split without serious talks of a long-term contract extension.

From there, Granlund was linked to about a dozen and a half teams across the NHL with varying degrees of believability and waited patiently for a string of offers to roll in; a string of offers that ultimately never came.

So naturally, with the season officially on track, Granlund still unsigned, and the Preditors still looking for top-9 depth after losing Craig Smith to the Boston Bruins in free agency, a reunion became more and more applicable, and on Tuesday, December 22nd, the two sides made it official: Agreeing to a one-year contract worth $3.75 million according to Adam Vingan of The Athletic.

Now granted, will it be weird to see Granlund in a gold, navy, and white uniform once more? Most definitely, especially after he talked trash on the team in a Finnish newspaper, but with a limited training camp, a limited regular season, and an even limiteder(?) market for his services outside of a one-year deal, this pairing made almost too much sense for it not to happen.

With a full season under Hynes and a burning desire to earn that long-term deal when free agency opens up once more in 2021, Granlund may finally deliver on the potential Nashville coveted when they initially acquired him from the Wild a year and a half ago. Who knows, maybe if he really does go off, recording the 56 game equivalent of 60 points, the Predators may actually re-engage with the soon-to-be 29-year-old about a long-term deal after all.

And the best part of it all? The Nashville Predators still have over $4 million in cap space to further fortify their roster, take on money from other teams, and generally fortify their future both short and long-term moving forward. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.