{"id":20974,"date":"2018-01-03T20:55:16","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T01:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=20974"},"modified":"2018-01-03T20:55:16","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T01:55:16","slug":"nashville-predators-announce-filip-forsberg-long-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/01\/03\/nashville-predators-announce-filip-forsberg-long-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Nashville Predators Announce Filip Forsberg Out Long-Term"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nashville Predators<\/a>\u00a0have announced that star winger\u00a0and leading scorer Filip Forsberg<\/a><\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

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#Preds<\/a> forward Filip Forsberg will miss 4-6 weeks with an upper-body injury. https:\/\/t.co\/JZQyWHiLxU<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) January 3, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nashville Predators Announce Filip Forsberg Out Long-Term<\/h1>\n

The 23-year-old Swedish winger left midway through the third period of last Friday night\u2019s loss to the\u00a0Minnesota Wild<\/a>\u00a0in St. Paul, Minnesota.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0and a relative Corsi of +13.3.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Washington Capitals<\/a>. He was traded to the Predators as a part of the\u00a0Martin Erat<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>deal on April 3, 2013.<\/p>\n

The Swedish sniper was the first player in the team history to reach 30 points in 30 games. Head coach\u00a0Peter Laviolette<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0stated\u00a0the importance of the loss of his team\u2019s top scorer<\/a>\u00a0to Predators beat reporter Adam Vingan of\u00a0The Tennessean<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody appreciates that he\u2019s been one of our top scorers and one of our top players consistently year after year since he\u2019s been here,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Laviolette said.<\/p>\n

What This Means for the Future<\/h2>\n

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\u00a0to their strong centre depth including Ryan Johansen<\/a><\/strong>, Kyle Turris<\/a><\/strong>, and Nick Bonino<\/a><\/strong>. Defenceman Ryan Ellis<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is also set to return, so the Predators can count on more offence from their already high-powered defence.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last Saturday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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Main Photo<\/p>\n

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Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n