NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Maybe someday, Frederick Gaudreau will get his own locker.
Maybe today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe if he scores the Cup-winning goal. For the time being, though, Gaudreau — Nashville’s leading goal-scorer in the final, with two — has to make due in the mornings with a chair and cabinet sitting in middle of the locker room.
Seriously, it’s right by the door. They don’t make him sit near the laundry bins, but he’s close enough. Even then, the 24-year-old rookie center wouldn’t complain. Something is working; he’s scored the first two goals of his NHL career against the Penguins, including the winner in Game 3.
“I could be sitting on the floor and I would take it anytime,” he said on Monday after Nashville’s morning skate.
“It is a little crazy when you think about it, but honestly at the end of the day I’m here and I’m just trying to do my job. Whatever is happening is happening, and I’m focusing [on] what I can do next.”
Gaudreau, with all of nine NHL games under his belt, has been a huge help for the Predators. After spending virtually the entire season with AHL Milwaukee, he came up late in the Western Conference final and hasn’t left the lineup since.
“He stepped in and has done such a terrific job,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “He’s been able to play different positions on different lines for us. He’s done it very well.”
In any case, his makeshift stall is nothing new. It’s also not permanent; it’s based on seniority and a cramped locker room, and plenty of young Predators have had to deal with it.
“A couple guys have gotten a taste of it,” winger Colton Sissons said. “He’s not in the middle when it comes to game time, I’ll tell you that.”
In short, if you make the gametime roster, you get a real locker. The next day at practice, though, it’s back to the floor.
“[Pontus Aberg], [Kevin Fiala], me my first year — if you’re a young player in your first couple years, you’re gonna get that,” left winger Colin Wilson said.
Sean Gentille: sgentille@post-gazette.com, Twitter: @seangentille.
First Published: June 5, 2017, 5:03 p.m.