Former UMaine hockey star Gustav Nyquist signs with Nashville
Former University of Maine two-time All-American and Hobey Baker Award finalist Gustav Nyquist has signed a two-year, $6.37 million deal with the NHL’s Nashville Predators after spending last season between Columbus and Minnesota.
It will be his fifth team in his 11-year NHL career.
Nyquist, who was a free agent, has played both center and wing and will turn 34 on Sept. 1.
Nyquist had 10 goals and 12 assists in 48 games for Columbus this past season before being traded to Minnesota for a fifth round draft pick.
He had a goal and four assists in three regular season games for the Wild and added five assists in six playoff games.
He has played 703 career NHL regular season games and has 175 goals and 253 assists for 428 points. He has appeared in 71 Stanley Cup playoff games with five goals and 21 assists.
He has been a 20-goal scorer four times in his career with the last being in 2018-19 when he scored 22 goals in 81 games for the Detroit Red Wings and San Jose Sharks.
He was a fourth-round draft pick, the 121st overall, of the Red Wings in 2008.
He had 28 goals for Detroit in 2013-14 and 27 more the following season.
The 5-foot-11, 176-pound native of Malmo, Sweden, told The Tennessean that he was happy to be a Predator.
“It’s an exciting stage of this organization, a little ‘remodel,’” said Nyquist. “You have really good building blocks in every position, [Filip] Forsberg, [Roman] Josi and [Juuse] Saros. Me and my family couldn’t be happier to be here.”
Nyquist is tied for 19th with Patrice Tardif in UMaine’s all-time scoring list with 144 points on 50 goals and 94 assists in 113 games.
Nyquist led the Black Bears in scoring in all three of his seasons and led the country in scoring his sophomore year when he had 61 points on 19 goals and 42 assistsin 39 games. He was the runner up for the Hobey Baker Award to Wisconsin’s Blake Geoffrion.
He had 18 goals and 33 assists for 51 points in 36 games his junior year before signing with the Red Wings.