The Nashville Predators bolstered their lineup at the trade deadline when they acquired Ryan Hartman from the Chicago Blackhawks in one of the more surprising deals of the deadline. After adding Kyle Turris earlier this season, the Preds appear ready to get back to the promise land and capture their first Stanley Cup in history.
While most teams are all but set at making a run at the cup this spring, the Preds could be getting a welcome addition to their club in the form of Olympian and current KHL standout Eeli Tolvanen.
Accroding to Russian hockey reporter Aivis Kalnins, Tolvanen is expected to join the team that selected him with the 30th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft as soon as his KHL season with Jokerit is concluded.
Tolvanen represented the country of Finland at the Pyeongchang Olympics where he notched 3 goals, 6 assists in 5 games.
In the KHL, Tolvanen, has broken records for his offensive output at just 18 years of age. He’s up to 36 points in 49 KHL games.
Currently on a one-year contract in the KHL, the latest the Preds would get Tolvanen would be if Jokerit happens to advance to the KHL’s Gagarin Cup, which concludes on April 26th if a seventh game is needed to settle the series. He’d burn a year off his three-year entry-level contract, meaning he’ll be that much closer to free agency.
Even with Tolvanen not in the picture, it’s hard to find a weakness on this Preds squad, although there's no gurantees he'd even fit in seamlessly. Boosting one of the best defence core in the league with the likes of P.K. Subban, Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm, the strengths of the Preds is well documented.
But if the Preds add the uber skilled prospect to their lineup that already includes Turris, Ryan Johansen, Kevin Fiala, Viktor Arvidsson and Filip Forsberg, you might just be looking at one of the most talented groups of forwards in the NHL, with Tolvanen being the final piece to a potential Stanley Cup.
For a player that was picked 30th in the first round, Tolvanen might already be the steal of the draft based on his production nine months after Nashville selected him.
