Swedish winger Viktor Arvidsson emerged from the fourth round of the draft to set records for the Nashville Predators. That all started with his rookie season in 2015-2016.
The kid has turned into a shot generating, goal scoring machine for the Preds since his debut. In 2018-2019, he set the franchise single season goal scoring record with 34 goals.
Before that, though, he played 56 games for Nashville as a rookie while scoring 8 goals and adding 8 assists. He also worked like a madman. If you’ve followed Arvy, you know he’s got one of those engines that never quits. His jersey shows it.
The most wear is found in the numerous repairs on both sleeves. There are around 10 repairs on the right sleeve and 5 repairs on the left. There are also several marks on the body and upper sleeves.
This jersey was worn in 21 games in the 2015-2016 season. 13 in the regular season, where he scored 3 goals and 4 assists, and another 8 games in the playoffs where he tallied another assist. It is photomatched to every playoff game and another handful of regular season games.
Arvy has a knack for scoring goals that the referees miss, and he had one just like that in this sweater.
Arvidsson lifted a crazy carom off the boards above Corey Crawford’s pad into the net for a second period goal. The refs missed it initially, but eventually called it a good goal.
That’s the thing that makes the kid so great. He just has a knack for scoring.
Whether it’s in front of the net or some wild slapper from the top of the faceoff circle, the pucks just find a way into the net at a rate that I don’t think anyone would’ve expected when he was drafted in 2014.
Photomatches to Viktor Arvidsson’s well worn gamer from 2015-2016.
Arvidsson is no Matthews, Pastrnak, or Ovi…but he’s certainly no slouch, either.
Since arriving in Nashville full-time in 2015-2016, Arvy has scored 117 goals in the ensuing 329 games. If you take away his rookie season, he’s scored 109 goals in his past 273 games. That’s an incredible pace for a guy selected in the fourth round of the draft.
That puts him on roughly a 33 goal pace per 82 games. I’ll take that kind of production on my team any day.
If there is any knock on the kid, it’s been an inability to stay on the ice the past two seasons.
It remains to be seen if there will be lingering effects from the bludgering he took from Blues forward Robert Bortuzzo which nearly caused him to miss the 2020 Winter Classic.
Hopefully not. The Swede is a joy to watch and the “RV! RV! RV! RV!” chants reigning down from the crowd in Bridgestone Arena are a highlight of any broadcast.
Viktor Arvidsson’s rookie season showed the motor that would evolve into a legitimate goal scoring machine on Broadway. Part of that foundation was laid in this jersey, and that’s pretty damn cool.