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Nashville Predators forward Jonathan Marchessault (81) controls the puck against Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Alex Vlasic (72) on March 22, 2026 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. MELISSA TAMEZ\/ICON SPORTSWIRE<\/p>\nNashville Predators forward Jonathan Marchessault (81) controls the puck against Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Alex Vlasic (72) on March 22, 2026 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. MELISSA TAMEZ\/ICON SPORTSWIRE<\/p>\n
Jonathan Marchessault stopped short of calling his recent stretch of improved play his best work.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a clear step up, though, from where the slumping Nashville Predators forward had been most of the season. Between nagging injuries and what seemed to be a lack of fit within the Predators\u2019 lineup, the 35-year-old was on pace for his least productive year since his rookie campaign in 2015-16.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m playing better hockey and part of a team that\u2019s trying to make a push for a playoff spot,\u201d Marchessault said March 24. \u201cI think right now, honestly, everyone (has) a great mentality and a great spot in the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the Predators<\/a> are to make the playoffs, Marchessault is a key part of the equation.<\/p>\n The 2023 Conn Smythe Trophy winner appears to be healthy after missing a total of 19 games over three stints on the injury report with a lower-body issue. That was the first step.<\/p>\n Slotting Marchessault next to newly minted center Matthew Wood<\/a> and Filip Forsberg on the second line is also paying dividends. Since the trio came together on March 15, Marchessault has dished out seven assists in as many games to push his season point total to 28 (11 goals, 17 assists).<\/p>\n \u201cObviously Fil is an amazing, world-class player, but Woody is the one that facilitates a little bit of everything for me and Fil,\u201d Marchessault said. \u201cHe\u2019s low and slow in the middle. (He\u2019s) always available, and we have a lot more possession (of) the puck. He\u2019s a big guy. He has good flair for what\u2019s coming up ice when he has the puck. He has good vision, good flair for the net. He\u2019s a great goal scorer. \u2026 I think he\u2019s definitely the big difference for us right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Marchessault was an obvious candidate<\/a> to be shopped at the trade deadline despite the full no-movement clause in his five-year, $27.5 million contract that runs through 2028-29.<\/p>\n Questions still remain about his long-term future in Nashville. Marchessault declined to comment in early March on whether he had discussed potential trades with Predators general manager Barry Trotz.<\/p>\n During his post-deadline press conference, Trotz took some of the blame for Marchessault\u2019s struggles and expressed his belief in a turnaround for the talented veteran winger.<\/p>\n \u201cMarchy is fantastic around the net,\u201d Trotz said March 6. \u201cHe\u2019s a scorer and can still do all of that, but you need complementary (playmakers). I sometimes don\u2019t have the right pieces for him, so it does hurt his game.<\/p>\n \u201cBut he\u2019s still got lots of game. He really does. He\u2019s a player that can get frustrated sometimes, but when he gets hot, he\u2019s hot.\u201d<\/p>\n Forsberg and Wood have solved Marchessault\u2019s fit issue at least temporarily.<\/p>\n It may give the Predators a chance to see Marchessault in his element: the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He holds 76 points and a whopping plus-37 rating across 102 postseason appearances, including a Stanley Cup title run with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023 after helping the franchise\u2019s inaugural team to a runner-up finish in 2018.<\/p>\n Crunch time often brings out the best from the formerly undrafted Marchessault who developed into an NHL All-Star.<\/p>\n \u201cI think obviously he\u2019d like to have the first part of the year back,\u201d Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. \u201cHe went through some injuries and didn\u2019t start the way he wanted to. He\u2019s a guy who\u2019s been through this before. He\u2019s (risen) his game up to the challenge. He\u2019s excited to be playing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Follow Russell Vannozzi on X\/Twitter\u00a0@RussellV_MSP<\/a>. For the latest Nashville Predators stories, be sure to\u00a0sign up<\/a>\u00a0for the Main Street Nashville email newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nashville Predators forward Jonathan Marchessault (81) controls the puck against Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Alex Vlasic (72) on March…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5119],"tags":[5,2409,231,5281,4,2410],"class_list":{"0":"post-525730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nashville-predators","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nashville","10":"tag-nashville-predators","11":"tag-nashvillepredators","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-predators"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116301360016054721","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}