On the Terry Crisp Rink at Ford Ice Center, Tommy Novak carries the puck up the ice.
Clad in an all-navy jersey, with his familiar number 82 on the back, Novak quickly surveys his options. Seeing a sliver of space on the outside of gold jersey-ed opponent Tyson Barrie, he moves the puck to the top of the left circle.
He peels back slightly, stopping his forward motion, but still clinging to the puck. Barrie hangs back, staying close, ready to defend.
Head up, eyes darting, he looks across. He thinks about a pass to a streaking Kiefer Sherwood, but holds off. This pause creates a bit more space to Barrie’s right, along the wall, so he accelerates and carries down the wall.
He runs out of room, with Barrie closing in, but by this point, teammate Spencer Stastney is in the zone behind him. He drops the puck back for Stastney, and the play continues, now with all five attackers in the zone.
A more reckless attacker might have taken on Barrie in space, hoping for the best. Or maybe attempted the pass to Sherwood, risking a turnover courtesy of a looming Ryan McDonagh.
But Novak, knowing he needed a bit more space to make a decision, plus a little more time to get his line-mates in the zone, knew exactly what to do.
The drop to Stastney leads to a quick shot on net. A loose rebound dribbles across the crease. Sherwood nearly gets it into the open net, but a quick save from Troy Grosenick gives the Gold defense a moment to breathe.
All of this happens in about five seconds.
This chain-reaction of decisions by Novak, one on top of another, helped the play unfold. Thinking the play ahead, moving quickly through the decision-tree in his brain, as his eyes and ears give him the data to process.
It’s all a part of accomplishing an important goal in the offensive zone: “creating space.”
“I think of it a little bit like a puzzle,” Novak says afterward. “You kind of look at where the defenders are, where your guys are, and try to make decisions based off of that.”
“Puzzle solving” Novak builds a name for himself
Creating space in the offensive zone, or “puzzle solving”, as he calls it, helped Tommy Novak finish 3rd in total points (43) and 1st in points per sixty minutes played (3.45) for the Nashville Predators last year. He was one of the few bright spots on a team that wildly under performed, and was a big reason why the team even had a shot at the playoffs late in the season.
His skill at finding space in tight areas, at protecting the puck from aggressive defenders, and at locating his teammates at opportune moments stood out last year.
The Preds were a mess offensively last year, rarely putting up much of a fight against stout defenses in the Western Conference. But Novak was one of the few forwards who found ways to consistently solve offensive puzzles and find goals out of nowhere.
And his reputation for doing so has carried into the new season.
Don’t take my word for it, take new center Ryan O’Reilly’s, who was asked on Thursday to name a young player he’s been impressed with so far.
“Just from our pre-skates alone, seeing these guys, [Novak] is very impressive in the way he handles the puck and creates space,” O’Reilly said. “I was very impressed with him.”
Novak, who was admittedly flattered at receiving praise from such a respected veteran like O’Reilly, has a calm confidence in his offensive skill. (In truth, Novak’s calm about nearly everything.) He knows he wants to get better, but he also knows he has a talent that not everyone has.
“Guys that are good at [creating space] are good at reading the play, finding the best possible option, whether it’s entering the zone or having it in the zone. It’s a fast game, so quick decision making skills are big. That’s kind of been a strength of mine for as long as I’ve played. It gets better with experience obviously, and every year is different, so I just hope to continue to add that element to my game.”
Faster, stronger, more confident
It’s been a typical offseason for Novak. Traveling back home to see family and enjoying the rare warm season of Minnesota. Novak’s home is on the western side of the Twin Cities, so he’s spent most of his life enduring brutal Minnesota winters.
“Eight months out of the year, it’s not great,” Novak says.
But he’s been spending most of the summer indoors, either in the gym or on the ice, working on his game. The big focus this offseason for Novak, in preparation for a new system under Head Coach Andrew Brunette, has been getting faster and stronger.
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“The last few offseasons have been revolved around the same thing,” Novak told the media on Thursday. “Just trying to get faster, get stronger, and then work on the little things in my game.”
Novak’s surprising offensive output last year undoubtedly forces the new coach to take him seriously as a core member of the forward group. It also gives him a nice boost of confidence going into the new season.
“I think it helps with me with my confidence, knowing that it’s possible for me. I always kind of knew I had it in me, but just to go out there and do it. Definitely gives me more confidence coming into the season and that’s kind of a fragile thing. Right now I’m just excited for the year.”
While we still don’t know exactly what the Predators will look like under Brunette, the assumption is a faster, more productive offense revolved around speed, skill, and up-tempo action. According to Novak, it’s going to look like a very different Preds’ offense this year as compared to the last few years under John Hynes.
“Yeah, I think it’ll be different,” Novak says. “I think you’ll see a lot of a lot more skating and speed. We’re going to be skating out a lot, with the wingers pushing out of the zone fast. Getting up the ice fast and getting on the puck fast. Less of us sitting back, more quick transitions, getting up the ice fast and making plays.”
“Getting up the ice” and “skating” seem to be coded language for an all around increase in the pace of play. Everything under Brunette so far seems to be fast, fast, fast. Practices at training camp have been noticeably fast, with transitions between drills that emphasize getting from one drill to the next quickly. Drills have been focused on forcing quick decisions, making every play take half as long as it should, and knowing where you are going with the puck before you actually go.
And the skating… the skating has been noticeably constant.
Every drill begins and ends with skating. Every drill has an element of skating. Every practice ends with skating. It’s probably the most consistent element across the first few days of training camp.
Every player, veteran and rookie alike, has mentioned the pace of camp as elevated from previous years. And because the goal is to improve the team’s 28th ranked offense from last year, it’s a welcomed change.
“We want to play really fast,” Novak says. “I think [the pace of practice] could contribute to scoring more goals and playing off the rush more. My first impressions are that it’s gonna be a fun season.”
Novak’s role undefined as of yet
The big question for Novak is… where will he play? And how much?
Novak became a top six center by default late last year, after injuries to Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene shortened the Preds’ bench. He was playing well before those injuries occurred, but saw his playing time go up significantly late in the season: in his first 25 games, Novak averaged 12:03 minutes per game; in his final 26 games, he averaged 17:09.
But the 2023-24 squad will look quite different.
First, the team signed 14-year veteran center Ryan O’Reilly this summer, ostensibly to become their 1st line center after trading Ryan Johansen to Colorado. Cody Glass is back as well, signing a two-year contract as an RFA. Colton Sissons, Juuso Parssinen, and Michael McCarron make up the rest of the center depth.
Where will Tommy Novak fit? 2nd line center? 3rd line center? Does it even matter to him?
“No, I really don’t care,” he tells me. “First, second, third, whatever, it doesn’t really matter for me. It’s more about how much time am I getting out there, how’s my line doing as a unit. Whatever line you’re on the chart, that never really mattered to me. It doesn’t matter to most of the guys in the room.”
Speaking of his line, what about his wingers? Who will he play with? About that, Novak is equally as unconcerned.
“I think different players work differently. You have to read off your line-mates, so depending on the guys you’re playing with, they might change up your style a little bit or change your decision making a little bit. I don’t think there’s really a preference, you just you kind of go with what you get rolled with. I definitely try to play to my line mates strengths, to try to be the best I can for for their game.”
In practice this week, and during Blue vs Gold scrimmages, Novak has played with many different wingers, including Kiefer Sherwood, Luke Evangelista, and Phillip Tomasino. The potential combination. of Novak with Evangelista is the most tantalizing, just given the hype around Evangelista’s offensive skills. A pairing with Kiefer Sherwood is probably the most likely however, as they spent over 250 minutes together last season.
Andrew Brunette told us this week he tends to avoid throwing all of his talent onto the top two lines. He prefers balance throughout the lineup, rolling four lines as consistently as possible. This puts Novak at a slight disadvantage, because last year he increased his production as his playing time increased. If he loses any playing time, he might see a drop in production, which could cause a setback in the 26-year-old’s career.
But reading between the lines, Brunette seems to think of Novak as a top guy on his team. Likely he will be either the 2nd line or 3rd line center, splitting center duties with Cody Glass equally. Glass, being the better defensive center between the two, will probably get more tough defensive assignments, giving Novak a chance to “solve more puzzles” in the offensive zone.
Novak not worried about future
Along with 22 other players on Nashville’s payroll, Tommy Novak is only under contract for one more year with the Preds. Not only that, his free agency becomes unrestricted this upcoming summer, as he will turn 27 before the end of the season.
Novak has already out-performed his salary in two short seasons, and his $800,000 cap hit going into the 2023-24 season stands to be one of the best values in the NHL this year.
So, what does he think about signing long term in Nashville?
“I would love that to happen,” he says. “I don’t really have much control over what’s going to happen, but yeah, that would be awesome. As you know, I have a lot of awesome friends here. And I love the direction of the team, what the team’s looking like. Yeah it would be awesome, I would love that.”
Time will tell if new general manager Barry Trotz is likely to hand out long term contracts with as much frequency as David Poile did (speaking of puzzles, Trotz has done a fine job putting one back together so quickly in Nashville). But if there’s any player that deserves a long term deal, just based on skill alone, it’s Tommy Novak.
— Featured image via Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire —
