The Predators announced today that they have reassigned center Fedor Svechkov to AHL Milwaukee. The move frees up a roster spot, indicating that one of their IR-bound defensemen, Alexandre Carrier and Jeremy Lauzon, could be close to returning. According to Robby Stanley of NHL.com, neither will play tonight against the Rangers but skated this morning.
It’s not an unexpected result for Svechkov, who made his NHL debut earlier in his development than most expected. Nashville selected the 21-year-old in the first round of the 2021 draft, and he’s in his second season in North America after coming over from Russia in the 2023 offseason. He got off to a hot start with AHL Milwaukee, posting five goals and eight points in seven games, earning himself a performance-based recall with the Preds struggling to generate offense.
After scoring two goals and posting a -1 rating through his first nine NHL games, he’s returned to the minors for further development. He won’t require waivers to head to the AHL until the 2026-27 campaign or until he reaches 160 career games, whichever comes first.
Over the past few weeks, Svechkov has averaged nearly 12 minutes per game. He has won 46.2% of his faceoffs and recorded four blocks and 10 hits. He’s averaged a shot on goal per game and logged underwhelming possession numbers. He only controls 49.5% of shot attempts at even strength despite starting 73.1% of his shifts in the offensive zone.
2 goals in 9 games is pretty darn good for the Preds this season. The kid actually played pretty well……no wonder they sent him down. :/
@Gbear — Even though it’s a small sample size for Svechkov, he seems to be projecting in the right direction, scoring-wise, eh? The faceoff numbers need to improve, and puck protection definitely is a sore spot for him, but most of the team is in that boat. And, PuckPedia shows him being waiver-exempt, as well. I had to do a bit of digging, but I wanted to share the link for GMBT’s hit on OverDrive a couple of weeks ago —
link to player.fm
@Mac – My guess is GMBT isn’t nearly as opptimistic now as he was when this was recorded. Oddly, I think that 18 game point streak last season was the worst thing that could’ve happened to this team, as it gave them a false sense of what kind of team they really are (which is 41-50-9 apart from that streak).
@Gbear — My thoughts exactly. Even though it seems Marchessault and Stammer are starting to settle in, it may be too little, too late.
Disappointed they didn’t just give him regular minutes and let him grow. Preds cannot even do a Tank season right.