Mikael Granlund is smiling a lot more now than he was last year.
“I wasn’t really happy at all the whole season,” the 31-year-old center-winger shared on the second day of San Jose Sharks training camp.
After a 2021-22 season where he put up 64 points, including a career-high 53 assists, and led all forwards for the playoff-bound Nashville Predators in ice-time, Granlund and the Preds slumped last year. Nashville was out of the playoff picture, and Granlund had just 36 points in 58 games, when they traded him to the Penguins at the Trade Deal.
SAN JOSE SHARKSSmile Is Back for GranlundPublished 11 hours ago on September 22, 2023By Sheng Peng Credit: Hockey Shots/Dean Tait
Mikael Granlund is smiling a lot more now than he was last year.
“I wasn’t really happy at all the whole season,” the 31-year-old center-winger shared on the second day of San Jose Sharks training camp.
After a 2021-22 season where he put up 64 points, including a career-high 53 assists, and led all forwards for the playoff-bound Nashville Predators in ice-time, Granlund and the Preds slumped last year. Nashville was out of the playoff picture, and Granlund had just 36 points in 58 games, when they traded him to the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Trade Deadline.
“It’s just one of those seasons, the whole team, it didn’t go our way,” he said.
Things got worse in the Steel City. Hailed as an all-around forward who would help turn Pittsburgh into a contender, he mustered just five points in 21 appearances, and the Pens just missed the playoffs.
“When you look at the players we had on the team, that was probably the best team I’ve ever played with. And that was the first time I didn’t make the playoffs,” Granlund said of a Pittsburgh squad that featured three future Hall of Famers in Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang. “That was a weird feeling, but that’s hockey.
