The Nashville Predators have announced that star winger and leading scorer Filip Forsberg will be out for the next four-to-six weeks. Earlier in the week, the team placed the Swedish winger on the injured reserve list with an upper-body injury.
#Preds forward Filip Forsberg will miss 4-6 weeks with an upper-body injury. https://t.co/JZQyWHiLxU
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) January 3, 2018
Nashville Predators Announce Filip Forsberg Out Long-Term
The 23-year-old Swedish winger left midway through the third period of last Friday night’s loss to the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul, Minnesota.
He has scored 15 goals and 19 assists for 34 points so far this season and added 22 penalty minutes. His possession numbers were 58.3 percent Corsi and a relative Corsi of +13.3.
Forsberg has played his entire six-season NHL career with the Predators. Forsberg has put up 106 goals and 119 assists for 225 career points in 301 career games. He was drafted 11th overall in the first round of the 2012 NHL draft by the Washington Capitals. He was traded to the Predators as a part of the Martin Erat deal on April 3, 2013.
The Swedish sniper was the first player in the team history to reach 30 points in 30 games. Head coach Peter Laviolette stated the importance of the loss of his team’s top scorer to Predators beat reporter Adam Vingan of The Tennessean.
“I think everybody appreciates that he’s been one of our top scorers and one of our top players consistently year after year since he’s been here,” Laviolette said.
What This Means for the Future
Nashville will be without its leading scorer for the next several weeks. There is no easy way to replace Forsberg in the line-up. The Predators will look for more of a scoring by committee approach. A lot of responsibility will go to their strong centre depth including Ryan Johansen, Kyle Turris, and Nick Bonino. Defenceman Ryan Ellis is also set to return, so the Predators can count on more offence from their already high-powered defence.
Last Saturday’s game was the first he has missed since April 2013. Forsberg was only one of nine players to play every game since the start of the 2014-15 season according to Bob Waterman of the Elias Sports Bureau. He had played in 283 consecutive games before being put on injured reserve.
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