Should Slafkovsky Have Gone to the World Juniors? Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MTk1MjA3NjgzNjI2NzcxNjU1/usatsi_19777336.jpg] The Seattle Kraken claimed Eeli Tolvanen off waivers from the Nashville Predators last month, and Preds GM David Poile didn’t shy away from giving his thoughts after seeing the forward’s turnaround. “This could be a mistake on our part,” Poile said in an interview with 102.5 The Game [https://twitter.com/RStanleyNHL/status/1612829301430255617] last Tuesday. After registering four points in 13 games with Nashville this season, the 2017 first-round pick recorded five goals and seven points in his first eight games with Seattle. But sometimes, all it comes down to is the fit with any given team. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work, and Poile said time will tell if they gave him enough opportunities and if they should’ve played him higher in the lineup. “That’s on me if he turns out to be really successful,” Poile added. “But we felt we tried him in a lot of different areas. Different places. We were really hoping that we’d get him through waivers so that he could play in (AHL) Milwaukee for a little bit and then bring him back up.” “Sometimes, they wanted me to be the checker, then one night, they wanted me to be the goal-scorer.” - Eeli Tolvanen on the Nashville Predators The 23-year-old Finnish winger, long renowned for his game-breaking shot, tallied 25 goals and 51 points in 135 games with the Predators. He averaged 13:45 in ice time during his time with the Preds and saw that drop to 12:49 to begin the season. “I always knew that I had the skill and all the details that they wanted,” Tolvanen said to The Hockey News on Friday. “But you know, I was just getting bottom six (usage) on the fourth line. “I felt like if I would have gotten a better opportunity this year, it could have paid off.” The last three years have been a rollercoaster for Tolvanen. His NHL career started with an encouraging 2020-21 campaign, recording 11 goals and 22 points in 40 games. He finished tied for the second-most power-play goals of any rookie that year with six. But his offensive production dipped during a streaky sophomore season despite averaging a career-high 14:48 ice time. After scoring in his first game of the 2021-22 season, he went his next 22 games without burying a goal – finishing with 11 goals and 23 points in 75 games. “Last year was more like wanting me to be more physical. More defensive. Good in all three zones,” Tolvanen said. “I felt like I did that.” The 5-foot-10 Tolvanen is not a prototypical undersized scorer. “He doesn’t play a small game,” said Cody Glass, Tolvanen’s close friend and former Nashville teammate. “He hits, and he’s fast. He’s a very skilled two-way forward, which people don’t notice that much. And that’s something I love about his game.” But for Tolvanen to be successful at the NHL level, he must produce offence. His inability to do so consistently, especially this season, led to him tumbling down the depth chart in Nashville. He struggled mightily during a five-game stretch alongside Ryan Johansen and Nino Niederreiter early in the year, registering one assist and a poor 41 expected goals-for percentage in that span. Tolvanen then found himself rotating in and out of the team’s bottom six before being scratched for seven consecutive games in the lead-up to going on waivers. Tolvanen said he felt a lot of mixed messaging from Nashville regarding his role. “Sometimes, they wanted me to be the checker, then one night, they wanted me to be the goal-scorer,” Tolvanen said. “So it kind of messed with my head.” “There will be a guy that will be out of the lineup on one team, and then he’s on the first line on the next team.” - Matt Duchene Nashville coach John Hynes’ answer to what went wrong for Tolvanen in Nashville adds another element of curiosity to the situation. “I wouldn’t say that anything went wrong in Nashville,” Hynes said. “He’s a power-play guy. And if you look at last year, we used him quite a bit in our top six. Last year, we had a top-five power play, so he wasn’t able to get as many looks.” But the Predators’ power play is 28th in the NHL [https://www.nhl.com/stats/teams?reportType=season&seasonFrom=20222023&seasonTo=20222023&gameType=2&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=powerPlayPct&page=0&pageSize=50] this season. And while he spent some time on the first unit this season, Nashville deployed him primarily on the left point instead of where he’s most lethal – as the one-timer man on the right flank. Sure, one could argue Tolvanen’s inconsistent output is sound reasoning not to give him an audition on the right side. But with Hynes and Poile speaking about how Tolvanen is an efficient power-play player – it’s a head-scratcher. The shoulda, coulda woulda’s are redundant now, though. Tolvanen’s now the latest undervalued player to carve out a role for Seattle, a team that runs a well-balanced, four-line attack drawing comparisons to the Vegas Golden Knights’ inaugural season. He also earned a couple more shifts in his past two games. “I’m really happy, everything has been going really well so far in Seattle,” Tolvanen said. “Getting the ice time in Seattle and trust from the coaches, it’s been paying off.” As Tolvanen finds his fit in Seattle, Predators forward Matt Duchene knows how different teams bring different results out of the same player. “It can definitely be the ‘Situational Hockey League’ every now and then,” Duchene said. “You see it all the time. There will be a guy that will be out of the lineup on one team, and then he’s on the first line on the next team. And it could be a team that’s better than the team whose lineup he couldn’t get into. “So it’s all about fit. Different coaches have different preferences and different things they’re looking for. Different guys fit a different style of game.”
