Here’s every NHL team’s player to watch break out this year
By Paul Grant
Nashville Predators: Juuse Saros
Sure, Pekka Rinne won the Vezina Trophy last season. And justifiably. Dude was good.
But a few factors are working the favor of backup and heir apparent Juuse Saros to have him a breakout season: Rinne is notoriously inconsistent from one season to the next, as is evident in his save percentage from the last five seasons, starting with his most recent: .927, .918, .908, .923, .902. And, no small factor is that Rinne, who has played an average of 62.5 games over the last four seasons, will turn 36 this season.
The time is now to get someone else lined up to be the No. 1, and that someone is Saros. What better way to ease someone into the role when you’ve got what could be the best defense corps in the league? Saros will get multiple reps behind the likes of Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, P.K. Subban, Mattias Ekholm, Yannick Weber and free-agent signee Dan Hamhuis. Not bad to try to get the feel for things behind that gang, yeah?
Saros isn’t exactly a freshee, seeing action in 21 games and 26 in the last two seasons, respectively, but this is the season when he gets handed starting duties more frequently and slowly eases the No. 1 title from the best goalie in franchise history (apologies to Mike Dunham).